s Menlo Park moves forward with its plan to plant 400 trees along its section of El Camino Real, Redwood City and Palo Alto are working on similar projects that developed independently.
Redwood City
With about $1 million in redevelopment funds in hand, Redwood City is scheduled to plant 105 trees in median strips on El Camino before the fall, said Mayor Ira Ruskin.
The city had hoped to plant about 200 trees, but Caltrans, which administers El Camino, would not give permission unless the height of the medians was raised. That expense was prohibitive, he said.
"I feel it's important to move ahead with what we're able to do, and we'll keep fighting for the rest," he said, adding that Redwood City will continue to lobby Caltrans for permission to plant the other trees.
Palo Alto
Redwood City has worked in concert with Menlo Park and Palo Alto to obtain Caltrans' permission for the median plantings.
"I think collaboration (among) the three cities has been critical," said Betty Meltzer, a member of the nonprofit organization Trees for El Camino. The group is raising funds to plant 1,000 trees along Palo Alto's corridor of El Camino.
Paul Dias, Palo Alto's director of Parks and Golf, noted that this $1 million project is being entirely financed through private means. He said tree-planting would take place in unison with a municipal project to re-landscape Palo Alto's section of El Camino.
Noting that Palo Alto has about 800 trees along El Camino now, he said that some 50 to 75 of these trees will be replaced by the city because they are dying or damaged.
"We're just now commencing on some preliminary plans," said Mr. Dias.
