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Committee urges clarity on Portola Terrace trail routing and notes CEQA will precede committee review
Summary
Members who walked the Stanford Portola Terrace site reported minor requested trail adjustments and said the project will undergo CEQA review and likely be handled by building and planning, limiting the committee's early involvement; the committee will review final routing and easement conditions once permits are submitted.
Portola Valley's Open Space Committee said it walked the Stanford Portola Terrace property and asked for modest trail adjustments, but members were told the Stanford project will proceed through CEQA and building-and-planning review before final trail routing comes to the committee.
The chair described the site visit and said committee members asked Stanford for several small modifications to make trails more user-friendly, including moving some switchbacks toward flatter alignments. "There are some minor modifications we're asking them to make to make the trails a little more user friendly," the chair said, and noted the committee expects to review easement locations as conditions of approval.
Members raised a question about a prominent oak tree along the proposed routing; the chair said the tree "looks like it's gonna stay." The chair also said the Alpine trail is being relocated inward onto the property and that where the trail crosses driveways raises an engineering and safety issue. "This is gonna be a multi use trail, so we have bicycles on the trail... we would just send them right into the middle of the road," the chair said, stressing the need for engineering review at driveway crossings.
The chair explained that MidPen's process for the Hawthorns and similar projects relies on a public working-group model and that Stanford's work will go through CEQA review before the committee gets a formal site-development permit application. "They're going through CEQA before bringing it in front of us and in front of the other committees," the chair said, and asked members to review the open-space committee's presentation and the online materials ahead of the next meeting so the committee can determine whether to sign a letter to the town council about the review process.
Why this matters: routing and design decisions made earlier in the developer-led process can affect trail safety, connectivity and easements; CEQA timing can limit committee input before environmental review is completed.
Next steps: members were asked to review the posted presentation on YouTube and provide suggested comments; the committee will decide whether to send a formal letter to the town council and will follow the permitting timeline as the project moves through CEQA and building-and-planning review.
