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The end is near for Woodside's Goat Hill

by Dave Boyce

The goats, chickens, geese and large black llama that grace the pasture at the corner at Hacienda Drive and Woodside Road in Woodside may soon be gone.

The property, including the house hidden behind the trees above the pasture, is now in foreclosure. Though nothing official has been communicated to her, Lisa Green, the Redwood City massage therapist who owns and cares for the farm animals, said in an interview that she expects to have ceased operations and be gone by Sunday, Nov. 1.

Ms. Green has used the pasture free of charge, courtesy of Woodside residents and property owners Scott and Mimi Cacchione. In its own way, the pasture has been a working farm, with Ms. Green selling eggs and goat's milk and opening the gates selectively to visitors seeking experience with real farm animals.

She will open up elsewhere, she said, possibly in Woodside, possibly in Pescadero, but visitors won't be allowed in. To move the animals, she will borrow a horse trailer. "They'll miss their friends," she said. "They'll be bored."

Officials from the bank involved with the foreclosure "have no interest" in talking with her, she said she was told by a real estate agent.

For $3.2 million and a rezoning of the property, it could be hers to start a nonprofit, but fundraising efforts have not done well. "We have had enormous verbal buy-in. I've been handed hundreds of business cards," she said. "We have had absolutely no concrete buy-in."

She said she would bring the animals back if somehow the property were to be rescued, but, she added, that would require the residents of Woodside "to get behind this in a concrete way."

Encouragement has come from at least one member of the Town Council, she said.

Asked about what might be daunting effort to have the place rezoned, should she find the money, Ms. Green replied: "You've got to hope and you've got to dream or nothing happens. Mountains are moved every day."

A deputy from the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office suggested contacting the Ronald McDonald house, which she has done, but she hasn't heard back from them, she said.

To get involved, Ms. Green asks that you join the Facebook group "Goat Hill Coalition."