The Palo Alto City Council approved “Project Renewal,” Stanford Hospital and Clinics’ massive expansion plan, in a series of 8-0 votes at Monday’s meeting. One council member abstained.

The $3.5 billion project, planned to be completed by 2025, is slated to add 1.3 million square feet to the Medical Center. The expansion will increase the Hospital’s capacity to 600 beds and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital to 361 beds and will add an estimated 2,200 jobs to the city.

This approval marks the end of a four-year bid by the medical center that included 97 public hearings and two years of deadlocked negotiations between the city and the University over development agreements that would allow the hospitals to exceed local zoning regulations. The talks began gaining momentum, however, after the University offered the city a hefty package of benefits and mitigations, a deal that includes $7 million in health care programs and services, $23 million in housing program fees, $12 million to support climate change initiatives and $3.4 million for the city to improve bicycle and pedestrian paths near the medical center.

—Ivy Nguyen