Thoughts on Portola Valley

Overview:

Portola Valley was founded in 1964, around a set of values sometimes called the “1964 Consensus”. Broadly speaking, the 1964 Consensus acknowledged that while people would live in Portola Valley and would build structures here, the structures and development would be subservient to the landscape. In short, the Founders of Portola Valley were looking to minimize the human footprint on the land. To that end, Portola Valley’s early planners created innovative zoning tools, including Slope Gradient Density and other measures, to account for local hazards—mainly earthquake faults and nearby zones with slide potential—and limit the number and size of structures. Zone Gradient Density, among other things, helped to prevent a high-density subdivision project that would have put hundreds of houses in the area we now know as Windy Hill Open Space Preserve.

To this day, Portola Valley adheres to the 1964 consensus as much as possible. For various reasons, development has expanded over time. In most cases, the increased development (larger houses and new lots) has been driven by market forces as residents build larger houses or second units. Those market forces have been shaped in some cases by our adherence to State Law, which in recent years has been aimed at addressing the housing shortage across the Bay Area and California. Our challenge in Portola Valley is to balance the requirements placed upon us with our own goals of public safety and the rural character of Portola Valley as captured in the 1964 Consensus.

Fire and Earthquake Safety:

Public Safety is one of our Town Government’s highest priorities. Much of the work to promote safety is done by our partners, particularly the Woodside Fire Protection District (WFPD) and the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office (SMCSO). In discussing Town policies, we have always engaged with these partners to make sure that our decisions would not compromise safety. We work regularly with local professionals, particularly the Fire Marshal, to make Portola Valley safer.

Our ongoing efforts on safety include working with the WFPD to remove high-risk vegetation along our major roads; ratifying a new Fire Code, adopted by WFPD, every three years; providing information to the Fire Marshal as needed regarding conditions on Town properties (private and public); seeking input on new building projects and Land Use policies as they’re considered; and identifying new opportunities and best practices in communicating with residents, about both routine safety maintenance and emergency situations.

In May of 2019, the Council, looking for more options to promote safety, formed a new committee, the Ad Hoc Wildfire Preparedness Committee. Nine residents ultimately volunteered for the Committee; I joined them as the Council’s representative. Over the second half of 2019, the Wildfire Preparedness Committee worked diligently, as a group and as subcommittees, to identify and vet additional safety measures. The process was public and engaged our major stakeholders, including the Fire District and Sheriff’s Office. In December of 2019, the Committee presented a list of 35 recommendations to the Town Council, which ultimately adopted all but one of them (the proposal to offer an incentive for fuel removal on private property was not adopted for budget reasons).

The new reality of a longer fire season, with fires closer to home, is frightening and challenging, and will require new efforts from the Town, our First Responders, and our residents. The recent CZU fire has raised the specter of evacuations, something that has not happened here before. This is an important topic which will be the subject of much more discussion; public engagement, with frequent input from our professional safety partners, is a critical part of our continuing commitment to public safety.

One important resource: the WFPD puts out an Evacuation Plan for Portola Valley, available on its website. This plan helps to explain the operational details for a community evacuation. The WFPD website also includes information to help in preparing for evacuations at its “Ready, Set, Go!” website.

Development and Land Use:

From its inception, Portola Valley has sought to maintain a balance between the desire to build and the protection of our natural environment. In recent years, increased concerns about fire have created more tension between building and conservation. At the same time, pressure to build has increased, both internally and externally.

From the outside, State and Regional government are asking us, like all jurisdictions, to do more to address California’s housing crisis. We’re asked to adjust our zoning and approval processes to allow for more housing units. This relaxation of requirements has resulted in more applications for new buildings from our homeowners and from our institutions. For example, when the Town modified our Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance two years ago to allow ADUs on smaller lots, a number of homeowners came forward in support, expressing their desire to add ADUs and allow their extended family (or others they know) to live with them. The added ADUs do create a strain on our infrastructure, but they are also a popular option for people looking to keep their children and grandchildren living nearby.

Our institutions have also turned to employee housing as a strategy for retaining key staff. For example, Woodside Priory School currently houses 17 families on campus, and recently broke ground on six more units. Stanford is currently advancing an application to build 27 faculty houses on their property on Alpine Road, along with 12 below-market rate (“affordable”) units; this project is part of an effort to attract and retain faculty members. Recently, the Sequoias Assisted Living Facility has also explored the possibility of employee housing on its campus. There is clearly a desire to take more active steps to address the housing shortage.

In weighing these various development proposals, the Town has always worked to ensure that any new building is consistent with our long-standing values, as stated in the General Plan. We also work closely with our local Safety Agencies (WFPD and the Sheriff’s Office) to understand the impact of development on public safety. And in all cases, these decisions are made transparently, in full view of the public, with the active participation of all of our stakeholders, including our residents. I remain committed to this transparency and will continue to welcome public input in all of our decisions.