County looks at adding billboards to public land

From “Recreational Potential of The Junipero Serra Freeway Through the Upper Crystal Springs Watershed” Prepared for State of California Division of Highways by Hall & Goodhue and Robert Trent Jones, Inc.
December 1967

“The World’s Most Beautiful Freeway.” This phrase was
written many years ago to describe the aspirations of the
people of the Bay Area for the new Junipero Serra Freeway.
Approaching San Francisco from the south, the route
winds through the undulating foothills of Los Altos, Palo
Alto, and Woodside. Then, for fourteen miles, it runs
through a vast, forested open space. This green corridor of
watershed land, in effect an arm of San Francisco, reaches
down the center of the Peninsula and forms the City’s
southern gateway.
Surrounded on three sides by water, San Francisco has
three automobile approaches. Two are internationally
famous as spectacular gateways to one of the world’s most
beautiful cities. From both, one beholds the City set apart
across a broad blue open space of water. Years ago, San
Francisco also enjoyed a handsome entrance from the
south, a land route through the open hills and valleys of
the Peninsula. But today, in contrast to the beautiful
approaches from north and east, the southern entrance is
through the urban sprawl typical of most cities, clogged and
cluttered with billboards and industry.
With the Junipero Serra Freeway, San Francisco now
has a new chance for an elegant southern entrance. It was
in this context that the study in this report was undertaken
—to seek out the most beautiful, most varied, and most
sensitive design for the first four miles of the southern
gateway.
The fourteen-mile scenic drive through the 20,000 acre
watershed, as free as possible from any visual contact with
the surrounding urbanization, will be the most important
recreational aspect of the plan, enjoyed daily by thousands.
The four-mile section of the drive now under study will be
like a four-minute reel of a movie travelogue extolling the
beauty and variety of the natural Peninsula landscape,
enhanced by the green grass of golf courses and the contrasting
blue of several lakes.
The route, carefully placed in the terrain, will leave the
hills absolutely unscarred. North and southbound lanes
will be two visually separate roads. Recreational facilities
planned for the area have been placed to enhance the drive
as a vast landscaped linear park at a scale beyond even the
famous European royal parks.
Two and one-half miles of golf course fairways have
been placed along the road so that the first glimpses of
Crystal Springs Lake will be set off in bright green. Softly
rounded golden hills crowned with oaks, typical of the
Peninsula, will lie to the right and left of the road. Vistas
across broad natural meadows enclosed with dense oaks
growing in masses as though each were a huge spreading
single tree—a moment in the depths of the woods—a sudden
opening-out of the scene to new vistas of the water—
lakes framed on the opposite side by thick woods—bright
green turf again placed as a foreground to the distant
wooded mountains—this is the sequence of scenes that will
unfold, unspoiled by the sight of the urban growth which is
rapidly pressing against the watershed all along the cast side.
With the possibility of recreational use of this part of
the watershed, the Junipero Serra Freeway will bring riding,
hiking, and the many other recreational activities in
the plan within a handsome twenty-minute drive from San
Francisco. All the recreational opportunities of the watershed
heretofore considered are possible on the modified
adopted route of the freeway.
In the studies of the area it was observed that the land
can he divided into four classifications according to land
form: the flat valley floor, the rolling hills, the steep hillsides,
and the top of the ridge. In this specific area, one of
the four, the rolling hills, is the most beautiful and appropriate
route for the road. The rolling hills are more interesting
than the valley floor. Deep scars which would have
to be made on the face of the steep hillsides to reach the
ridge would never heal. On the ridge vegetation is sparse,
subdivisions are already at the very edge of the watershed,
and the view is mediocre.

Michael, how about the original idea?

“The four-mile section of the drive now under study will be
like a four-minute reel of a movie travelogue extolling the
beauty and variety of the natural Peninsula landscape,
enhanced by the green grass of golf courses and the contrasting
blue of several lakes.” and,
“Two and one-half miles of golf course fairways have
been placed along the road so that the first glimpses of
Crystal Springs Lake will be set off in bright green.”

I have commented, in other topics, suggesting that proper stewardship of open space lands should include environmentally compatible revenue producing uses of a small percentage of open space land. One such use is golf courses developed by third parties under a land lease agreement. I suggest that a local entrepreneur, Robert Trent Jones, could effectuate a plan which would produce enough revenue to maintain open space land. Each golf course would require less than 90 acres of active area. The active area of six golf courses would need less than 1% of the total open space land in San Mateo County.
Regarding revenue producing golf courses, I direct readers to a “Market and Financial Feasibility Analysis for a New Golf Course in San Mateo County” conducted by Anna Trela, for San Mateo County Parks and Recreation Department in June 1989. http://pawmeister.com/A/ERA.pdf
NOTE: Ms. Trela, then an Associate of Economic Research Associates, was later employed as Vice President, Advancement, Peninsula Open Space Trust. https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-trela-473a954
I suggest that the Feasibility Analysis be used to create an alternative to billboards for raising revenue. This should be combined with an effort by San Mateo County and other local agencies, on behalf of citizens of the county, to enforce the terms of the 1969 “Grant of Scenic and Recreation Easement”

If Lennie Roberts doesn’t like that idea, might I suggest beautiful billboards with rolling fairways as a means to direct golfers to the myriad local golf courses readily available to mentally challenged golfers who insist on travelling to courses outside San Mateo County? And, we could include other billboards featuring lakes for fishing, boating and swimming. How about Water Dog lake?

That was in response to Scottie Links posting in “Butterflies and Edgewood Park” http://www.almanacnews.com/square/2013/04/29/butterflies-and-edgewood-park
“San Mateo courses are plentiful: Poplar creek, Sharp Park, Emerald Hill, HMB, Green hills, Crystal Springs, Mariners, Menlo CC, CAGC in SSF, Cypress, Lake Merced, Peninsula, Sharon Heights, Burlingame CC, etc..

Seems the choice to burn gas and take their money out of county is purely the choice and preference of the plaid pant crowd. Yes, you may need a reservation, but heck, if I want a simple picnic or camp spot in the middle of summer, I have to reserve that also!”

Why don’t we camouflage Sam Trans busses to eliminate those distracting commercials? And, what about personalized license plates? They can be very distracting.

Or, why don’t we cut to the chase and address the revenue issue directly. Is it too much to expect the stewards of our enormous supply of publicly owned open space to allocate a small portion for revenue producing recreational activities? And, additional funding could come from the sale of “naming rights”.