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At its Tuesday, June 11, meeting, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to approve new minimum road standards for the Menlo Oaks neighborhood, an unincorporated area located in northeastern Menlo Park. This decision has left some residents unhappy, while others are looking forward to the changes to their streets.
The Menlo Oaks neighborhood has a distinctive character. The narrow streets have no sidewalks nor gutters, few street lamps and are surrounded by large oak trees. Residents say the neighborhood, which has nearly 300 households, is known for its rural character and close-knit community.
The Board of Supervisors’ decision to adopt the new road standards follows months of contention in the neighborhood around the process used by the county to survey property owners about the new road standards. Residents are also concerned that the new minimum road standards will jeopardize large oak trees that line neighborhood streets, and add to traffic and speeding issues on neighborhood roads.
Other Menlo Oaks residents are happy with the county process and outcome of the vote, saying that the roads desperately need an update due to flooding issues, the crumbling roadbed and dangerous potholes.
The neighborhood’s previous road standards were adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 1998. These standards limited road work to maintaining the existing narrow roads in the neighborhood.
The same 1998 resolution also stated that the road standards would remain unchanged “until such time as the residents desire a different level of improvement as determined by a property owner survey or other means as approved by this or subsequent Boards of Supervisors.”
In 2022, the Board of Supervisors approved funding for public works to conduct a survey in the Menlo Oaks neighborhood in order to determine if the roads should be updated.
The Department of Public Works surveyed property owners on all streets in the community except for Ringwood and Coleman avenues. According to the county, the road standards for those two streets will be studied separately as they are part of the county’s Active Transportation Plan and require their own outreach process.
In November 2023, public works surveyed the neighborhood to see if residents wanted new road standards, and if so, what those standards would be. The surveys found that many roads in the neighborhood had flooding, drainage and pothole issues, and that many were upset with the condition of their roads. Some residents said that their children who bike, skateboard, or use crutches and wheelchairs are having a hard time navigating the roads.
“Our streets are a disaster,” said Menlo Oaks resident Victoria O’Hara at the Board of Supervisors meeting.
Resident Zoe Hyatt, who is a civil engineer, said that Menlo Oaks has some of the worst roads she has ever seen.
“Our crumbling infrastructure makes it unsafe to bike, walk or drive on our roads,” she said. “We need significant structural improvements, as your office has already indicated through a thorough, diligent and fair process. As climate change progresses, flooding will worsen and continue to deteriorate our roads.”
Others living in the neighborhood say that public works did not adequately study how installing wider streets with gutters could potentially lead to more traffic and speeding and impact the heritage oaks.
“It’s not our intent to remove any trees,” said Department of Public Works Director Ann Stillman. “That’s not what we would want to do. We have to work in a very thoughtful and careful manner to not disturb or damage any of the trees. It involves working with arborists. It involves really working around the trees.”
Supervisors Warren Slocum and Ray Mueller formed a subcommittee to follow along the road standards implementation process.
“The subcommittee was formed to give the supervisors more direct involvement as the project moves forward,” said Slocum in an email to this news organization. “For instance, we would like to review future questionnaires before they get mailed.”
Following more than an hour of public comment and discussion, the Board ultimately unanimously approved the new road standards for the neighborhood, and set in motion the project to upgrade the roads.
Neighborhood divided
The vote to adopt new road standards followed months of controversy and ire in the Menlo Oaks neighborhood over whether or not the process to adopt these new standards was conducted fairly.
“Until last year, the neighborhood had a feeling of everyone supporting each other,” said longtime Menlo Oaks resident Dorothy Fadiman. ”This proposal and the way the survey was conducted is tearing apart the neighborly atmosphere of Menlo Oaks.”
Neighbors upset with the process say that the survey was flawed because it did not include the residents from Ringwood and Coleman avenues, the wording of the survey did not accurately reflect the improvement options being offered and that residents were not given enough information.
Fourteen Menlo Oaks residents spoke at the meeting, and asked the Board of Supervisors to postpone their vote on the new road standards until the neighborhood could be resurveyed.
“In my 22 years as a Menlo Oaks homeowner, there has never been a bigger, more ill-conceived or more unfair or more frankly chaotic governmental threat to my neighborhood than the process and the outcome that you are being asked to endorse today,” said resident John Danforth in a public comment.
“Much of the controversy revolves around the flawed process by which DPW measured our residents’ desires for their streets in a survey,” said Menlo Oaks resident Judy Horst in a written comment to the Board of Supervisors.
The Department of Public Works did not bring the survey to the Board of Supervisors to review before it went out to residents.
Several residents living on Ringwood and Coleman Avenues commented that they felt excluded from a process that would affect their neighborhood.
“The County has divested Ringwood/Coleman homeowners of our rights under the (Menlo Oaks) Road Standard and treated us like we are not part of (Menlo Oaks),” said Menlo Oaks resident Karen Barr in a written public comment to the Board of Supervisors.
Several other neighbors commented that they felt the process was fair and that the neighborhood was well informed throughout.
“Between 78% and 100% of our residents actually participated in that vote,” said Menlo Oaks resident Greg Eckert in a public comment. “You don’t see that amount of participation almost anywhere else in America right now, and it’s fabulous. And you saw that the majority of the people. … they voted yes to improve those road standards.”
The Board of Supervisors reminded upset residents that they have a duty not only to those who live in the neighborhood, but also to others in the county.
“There is nothing as contentious as doing work in front of someone’s home,” said District 3 Supervisor Ray Mueller at the meeting. “But we have a duty not only to those who live in the neighborhood, but to those outside the neighborhood, … for those who might travel through that neighborhood from outside of it. And also for those who may be impacted by the spending of resources throughout the county. … having to spend resources in an area over and over again when the money can be used to help other people.”
What comes next
The next step for the neighborhood as outlined by the county is a block-by-block survey. This additional survey will be used to determine whether improvements are desired, and if so, which of the available improvements will be implemented.
Property owners will have the option to choose to maintain the roads “as is” in this subsequent survey if they decide that they don’t want any of the improvements being offered.
Design for the project is set to begin in 2027, and construction of the new road designs would not begin until 2028 or later, depending on funding availability. Until the new road standards updates are implemented, the county department of public works has said that they will continue to perform pothole and crack repairs on all streets in the neighborhood.
One road per year will be upgraded to the new road standards, so it will take several years for the project to be completed.
Am I missing something? Why do roads need to be widened and ‘urbanized’ to maintain them? The narrow, casual design there leads to a nice aesthetic and more importantly, encourages people to drive appropriately slowly. Frankly a design we should be looking to replicate not replace.
Sure, some spots might need some re-engineering to fix the drainage issues. But that shouldn’t force the whole street to large and curbed. Just maintain the existing roads.
Yes TR, you are missing something. Nothing in the project has to do with widening the roads or urbanizing them. The project (as designed and adopted) keeps the existing footprint of the roads and in most cases, the roads will be equal to (or even narrower than) the current roads today. Everyone should review the actual plan to see that the community adopted the narrowest road width available (as a means to significantly improve drainage issues which actually caused the loss of 6 heritage trees last year). Then compare what currently exists today in the community to see that this option actually creates NARROWER roads throughout Menlo Oaks. Whomever keeps saying this is a road widening project is simply lying (and misguiding others). Yes, there are some spots (very few) where the road will become wider. But that is not representative of the project the County has designed. And for those few areas where the road will be wider, the County will engage experts to help both the planning/design process as well as the ultimate implementation, where the County has promised to hand dig certain areas to protect trees.
I think I’m missing something too: did those residents purchase the land the streets are built on? From where I sit, those streets — all streets — should serve everyone, not just those who live on them. It looks like the County is bending over backwards to accommodate the majority of the residents’ wishes.
This article misrepresents the support of residents to undertake these changes – at least on Arlington Way. The vote to improve the street on Arlington did not receive a majority vote in support of the proposal. ln fact, the proposal failed. Many on Arlington have observed that the street is used by drivers as a cut through, with drivers racing down street at high speeds. Paving and widening the streets will do nothing to address this problem and may well make it worse and more dangerous for residents, children and pets. lf the board of supervisors wants to help, they should address the excessive speeding first. Also l suspect many who live here like the streets and don’t want to change the country lane feel.
I don’t understand, a super majority (close to 70%) of residents voted to improve the roads. I realize some people are upset, but we live in a democracy, so it makes sense that the Supervisors would actually side with the majority. An elderly neighbor tripped on a pothole and broke his hip a few years ago and subsequently passed away. Plus there are quite a few handicapped neighbors whose caregivers cannot even push their wheels chairs on the road right now. Many elderly neighbors are afraid to walk by themselves now as well. I found it interesting in reviewing the transcripts that Supervisor Mueller was concerned about the legal liability of the County given the current road conditions, seems like a dream case for an aspiring lawyer.
l am simply stating the facts. There was a street by street vote and the proposal did not win a majority on Arlington. Also, l believe the county attorney on the call said they did not believe there was litigation risk. l am comfortable relying on the expert’s opinion vs the statement of a politician advocating for a specific outcome. l did not vote against the proposal but l do feel like it is important not to misrepresent the facts of what actually occurred or ignore the legitimate concerns of neighbors. We have too much of that in (un)civil discourse already.
Arlington is currently at 50%, there was one vote lost in the mail that was not counted, and there is one home lot that received an extra vote (they have two parcels but only one home on the lot. I’ve heard there are neighbors coordinating with the Board of Supervisors to review the situation. Nothing will happen for at least 7 years and by that time it is likely a few neighbors may move so the make up of homeowners will change. Given that the vast majority of the other streets have voted for improvements, it would seem logical that the Board of Supervisors would allow Arlington to vote again (or they may unilaterally just fix the roads in Menlo Oaks which seemed to be the way they were leaning based on their commentary anyway)….
To those who argue that “the streets should serve everyone, not just those who live on them”… What you are missing is that residential streets should NOT serve as raceways for traffic between Menlo Park and 101 or shortcuts to Menlo-Atherton High School. That is the purpose of arterial roads. No residential area, not just Menlo Oaks, should be so encumbered. It behooves every residential neighborhood to find the balance between quality streets and streets that do not invite speeding and cut-through traffic. Many of us believe that our current streets, with minor repairs to potholes, are the perfect balance for safety and quietude.