2 views of Woodside Priory's expansion plans 2 views of Woodside Priory's expansion plans (April 28, 2004)

A generous neighbor for more than 50 years
By Claudia Mazzetti

After reading about the Woodside Priory School's project, it always reminds me how facts are easily twisted for one's own goals and agendas.

The Woodside Priory has been a fantastic, generous neighbor to the Portola Valley community for over 50 years. Their plans are not part of some grandiose objective to turn Portola Valley into another suburban cookie cutter community. Like Portola Valley's public school district's recent facilities renovation and expansion, the Priory's facilities need repair and updating to service a 21st century educational institution.

Of the surrounding communities, Portola Valley families represent the largest majority of day students at the school. All these families want to maintain the rural, peaceful atmosphere of the school and its local community. It is those Portola Valley Priory families who have asked the Priory to allocate more space for their children, so that they can attend their local private school rather than traveling miles to attend some other middle or high school. The Priory's response is another example of a good neighbor listening and responding to the demands of its neighbors.

I suspect that nobody who chooses to live in Portola Valley area wants to see more traffic. However, Portola Valley's demographics are changing. Census data shows that the number of school age children (under age of 19) had grown by 20 percent in the decade between 1990 and 2000, or from 871 to 1075. This inevitably creates more traffic within the valley and to all neighborhood schools, including the Priory. I believe that neighbors' concerns are mistaken and should be redirected to the Town of Portola Valley and the Portola Valley School District, rather than blaming Woodside Priory School for local problem congestion.

Concerns that have been expressed about the impact of the new performing arts center are valid but imprecise. Like Woodside High School and Sacred Heart Preparatory, the Priory's performing arts center will become an asset to the school and the community rather than a burden. This particular building will primarily service the school with its auditorium and three classrooms.

All parking will be contained on Priory property, not on Portola Road. Many local private and public schools have parking located on their grounds and receive very few complaints from their neighbors. So why, after many years of cooperative, friendly relationship between the school and community, do we have this unexpected potential conflict?

I encourage everyone who is concerned about the Priory's proposed plans to visit the school or talk to school representatives, local parents or Tim Molak at 851-6117. Get the facts first, and then draw your own conclusions.

Claudia Mazzetti lives in Portola Valley
and is a parent of a Woodside Priory School student.

A concern about parking and policy on rental
By Nancy Shott

Regarding the Woodside Priory School's proposed expansion plans currently under consideration by the town of Portola Valley, two important issues were not addressed in last week's Almanac article that deserve attention.

First is the issue of parking. While the Priory's proposal calls for a net increase of 20-30 parking spaces, it specifies a new main parking lot in the location of the current basketball court, with overflow parking on the entry drive "road shoulder and running track." Both of these areas are clearly visible from Portola Road.

Can town officials legitimately allow the Priory to establish its main parking and overflow area along the primary scenic corridor, particularly when the town itself is making a great effort to minimize the visual impact of parking in its new Town Center design further down Portola Road? While the Priory's track and entry drive are already regularly used for overflow parking, one can only expect that this usage will dramatically increase (as will traffic) with the addition of a 400-seat theater. I seriously doubt Portola Valley wants any part of its primary scenic corridor to become a parking lot.

The second issue is that the town has no clear definition of what types of rental uses are appropriate for the Priory facility. Apparently, town officials denied the Priory's request to rent their facility to Phillips Brooks School for a one-day event, but is considering allowing a five-day event involving 200-plus students from the International Benedictine Youth Congress because it is an "educational use."

How can one of these be interpreted as an educational use, and not the other? And if the town does approve the latter, doesn't that create a very slippery slope for interpreting the appropriateness of other "educational" events? Further, where are the 200-plus students going to be housed during their stay, since the Priory's dormitory facility has capacity for only 60?

Also unclear is how these types of uses are reconciled with the general plan provision requiring that a majority of a proposed use must "primarily serve" the residents of Portola Valley. Similarly, how does the town justify the Priory's rental of its facility to a five-week summer camp program that apparently draws only about 30 percent of its campers from Portola Valley?

Unless Portola Valley acts quickly to implement formal conditional use permit oversight and enforcement policies, dangerous precedents will be set that pave the way for further abuses by special interest groups at the expense of all Portola Valley residents. Atherton, Menlo Park, and other neighboring towns have formal policies fully in place. Given the high value that Portola Valley residents place on the rural character of our community, it is staggering that we do not.

Nancy Shott lives on Willowbrook Drive
in Portola Valley.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.