Portola Valley: Sausal Creek subdivision can go forward Portola Valley: Sausal Creek subdivision can go forward (October 12, 2005)

** Council denies appeal; work could start next spring.

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

The Portola Valley Town Council denied two Woodside residents' appeal and cleared the way for a six-home senior housing subdivision to be built along Sausal Creek.

The Sausal Creek Associates project includes five one-story homes, one below-market-rate house and an office building to be built on 1.4 acres adjacent to the Village Square shopping center in Portola Valley. The homes would be restricted to people age 62 and older, and would be designed to accommodate wheelchairs.

Don and Lynn Lane Jacobson, who live across from the project site on the Woodside side of Sausal Creek, contended that the project represented age discrimination, discrimination "against everyone but the extremely rich," and would violate standards for setbacks and creek alterations. They filed an appeal of the Planning Commission's approvals of the subdivision and site development permit.

The project includes extensive work to restore the eroded creek bank and slow the flow of storm water in the creek.

The Town Council voted 5-0 to deny the appeal at its September 28 meeting.

According to Portola Valley town staff, the town has no standard creek setback requirements, and "exhaustive evaluation" has shown that potential upstream and downstream impacts would be minimal. Work in the creek could begin as early as this spring, said Leslie Lambert, the Portola Valley planning manager.

The California Supreme Court has said that age discrimination is legal in retirement or senior housing communities, according to attorney Jeffrey Wagner in a letter to the Town Council. Housing projects restricted to people age 55 or older must have 35 or more units, but if the age restriction is 62 or older, a housing development can have fewer than 35 units, he said.

Ms. Jacobson also took her case to the Woodside Town Council on September 27, hoping council members would add their clout to her appeal before the Portola Valley Town Council. Council members agreed that work in the creek might cause future problems for Woodside residents downstream. They put those concerns into a letter to Portola Valley, saying that the project, if it fell within Woodside's boundaries, would be denied for being too dense and too close to creek banks.

"The real issue is we don't think it's appropriate to do this work in a creek on a common boundary to support new development," Woodside Councilman Pete Sinclair said at the meeting.

Ms. Jacobson told the Almanac that many other Woodside and Portola Valley residents also oppose the Sausal Creek project, and that they were looking into putting the matter to a referendum, now that the appeal has been denied.

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