For a considerable time before the hearing Stanford took the time to engage with the residents of Stanford Hills who are its lessees. It did not engage with any of the surroundingcommunity who will be impacted by the proposed development. Even the extremelyunpopular Larry Horton saw the advisability of that! As to the issue regarding the sound wall, it is myrecollection that when Stanford widened Sand Hill Road to the east of theintersection, it paid for a tall sound wall, a berm, landscaping,a side road, sound attenuating windows and insulation for the residents alongthat stretch of road in mitigation of the increased traffic noise that they wouldexperience from the road widening. As to the various comments concerning the decibel level atthe intersection, the values quoted are not credible unless all the traffic wasstopped or the readings were taken at midnight! There is a constant cavalcade of large trucks, radios, horns and airbrakes engaging/disengaging etc. In thevicinity of the intersection and down Santa Cruz and Alameda the noise from thetraffic is so loud that you cannot carry on a conversation. The same is true on Alpine. While not all ofthe traffic is coming or going to Stanford facilities, the vast majorityis. This is true for Sand Hill, Alpine,Junipero Serra and the Alameda. This isespecially true during term time and when any construction is underway (whichis virtually all the time) I understand that you were frustrated at last Tuesday’s CityCouncil meeting, but that frustration might have been forestalled had theuniversity taken the time to reach out to the surrounding community, not justits own lessees. That was done recentlyfor the 2018 GUP and an advisorycommittee was formed. It would have alsohelped your cause had you made a presentation at the County Board of Supervisors which isattended by the public. The result is that the university has received really badpress (today’s POST front page article) and a good many community members havebeen totally alienated. It would be somuch better if the university worked WITHother jurisdictions and community members to hear everybody’s concerns. People are NOT out to gouge the university: they just want some considerationfor the impact the monumental construction is having on local communities. Received on Sat Sep 02 2017 - 16:12:35 PDT
