The Stanford Community Farm might see itself relocated in the next year to make room for a new driving range, according to University officials and members of the farm.

The farm, currently located near Searsville Road and the Emergency Safety Facility, spans about one acre and is nestled next to the practice golf course. In plans to redevelop west campus, new housing projects may displace the current driving range, and University officials are proposing placing the new driving range on the current farm site.

Under the University’s general use permit from Santa Clara County, the current driving range is zoned for housing use, said Charles Carter, director of Land Use and Environmental Planning.

“One of the major housing sites on west campus is the current driving range,” Carter said. “At some point it’ll have to expand to keep up with housing needs.”

“Athletics has proposed to relocate the driving range to the practice golf facility that surrounds the Community Farm,” Carter added.

Representatives from Land, Building and Real Estate (LBRE) and the farm met on Oct. 25 to discuss the possibility of relocation. LBRE asked the farm to compile more information about the farm’s demographics, uses, needs and more for the next meeting to be held in coming weeks.

Since the proposal is still in early stages, LBRE officials are vague about the timeline and possible locations in play, while farm members express concerns about the possible outcomes of relocation.

“It’s a little touchy,” Carter said. “Nothing specific has been approved by the Board of Trustees yet. But in looking at the long-range picture, this is likely to play out.”

Daniel Murray, a member of the farm and a third-year doctoral student in modern thought and literature, said that the University had not yet made any definitive statements if the farm will be relocated and if so, where its new location might be.

“Some options that were presented and discussed are the Searsville lot (the current location of the horse track and stables) or a location outside of the central campus,” Murray wrote in an e-mail to The Daily. “The University appears to be proceeding carefully in their discussions with the farm, but we have no real idea where the plans stand. For all we know the relocation of the farm is a done deal and we are the last to know.”

Carter said that there are “no specific sites yet.”

“I did mention to the farm that as campus develops, it’s going to be harder and harder to find land in central campus for that particular use,” he said.

Murray said that if the farm were to move, maintaining a location on the central campus would help the farm increase its involvement in the larger Stanford community.

“At this point we very much hope that the farm can stay either in its current location or elsewhere on the central campus, rather than move to a satellite location,” he said. “Such a move will greatly decrease the connection with the Stanford community and the possibility for involvement of busy faculty, staff and students.”

For Matt Rothe, who has worked a plot in the garden with his wife for almost four years, a move would disrupt the land use at the farm.

“I’d personally prefer to stay where we are, given the time and money we’ve invested in developing the fertility of our soil, erecting structures like raised beds, and growing perennial plants that in many cases take years to mature and can’t be moved,” Rothe wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.

But, he added, he remains hopeful that if the farm is moved, the University would take the chance to provide additional resources to the farm, which has all its plots spoken for and has a waiting list of more than 40 faculty, staff and students who would like to get involved but cannot because of space constraints.

As for a potential timeline of a move, Carter said that there’s “not a concrete timeline,” though farm members say that in discussions, LBRE proposed a possible date in spring 2011 for relocation, which caused some concern.

“At the farm, we feel that this [possible spring relocation date] will be too early as any new area will take a great amount of soil and infrastructure preparation before moving the Farm can happen,” Murray said. “We feel that we need a longer timeline if a move were to happen and would need considerable resources to do so.”

Although plans are far from final, Carter said that it seems unlikely that a new driving range would be placed anywhere else on campus.
“I don’t know that there are any other [possible locations for the driving range],” he said, explaining that the range would need to be near the practice golf course and that other locations in west campus are limited by building permits.

Carter could not comment on funding sources for potential housing projects that might replace the current driving range, saying that housing project funding usually comes from University endowment and donors.