Redwood City to study expansion of Stanford Medicine cancer center

“What this will allow us to do is to develop a center that will be directly accessible to this community,” Shumway said. 

Cancer patient volumes have doubled in the last decade, and the significant volume increase is a key reason to hopefully expand into a new facility, Shumway said. The cancer center will slightly grow the current Stanford Health Redwood City 48-acre campus by another 0.35 acres. 

The approval by the City Council — made with a 4-0 vote with three councilmembers recused due to their involvement with Stanford — only approves the staff and consultants to study to viability of the project, which would necessitate an amendment to the existing development agreement. Isabella Chu, Jeff Gee and Chris Sturken recused themselves, Chu and Sturken because they work for the applicant and Gee because his employer did work for the applicant.

A formal application would likely be submitted by Stanford late this year or early 2027, which would begin the environmental and project review with council approval. Study sessions and the review processes would continue for likely a year before the project would require final approval by the City Council, projected for early 2028. 

While the plan is prone to modifications during this process, it could ultimately include between 100 and 200 new clinic rooms and 180 to 320 inpatient beds, Shumway said. 

Mayor Elmer Martínez Saballos expressed his appreciation for the city’s opportunity to have a hand in improving health care access to residents. 

“This is a really exciting ability for us to build a path forward that’s not only to heal people who actively need treatment but also to discover and prevent future diseases that our communities face risk of,” Martínez Saballos said.

A development agreement with Stanford Medicine was established with Redwood City in 2013, which transformed industrial spaces into research and development, education, administrative and medical office uses. The currently Redwood City campus does not have an inpatient beds, but does offer some outpatient care facilities. 

Should the city move forward with the plan in the future, it would likely interrupt the established block pattern currently in existence on the campus, including roads and open space areas, according to a staff report. 

Concerns were also briefly mentioned about the increase in traffic and what community benefits residents would be able to receive with the expansion. 

Overall, councilmembers, Stanford and the public expressed a strong desire to study the project and an eagerness to see the potential impact on the community. 

“We will develop the cures for cancer in Redwood City and those will be deployed across the globe,” Shumway said. “We are absolutely thrilled about the possibility that has for humanity at large but definitely for the residents here of Redwood City.”