December 24, 2003

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Publication Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2003

EDITORIAL: Stanford's new challenge on Sand Hill Road

To its credit, Stanford has embarked on an ambitious public outreach project, holding a series of neighborhood meetings for residents who live around the notorious bottleneck.

This complex meeting of four main roads has for years plagued motorists, as well as the nearby homeowners who must put up with an ever-growing glut of commuters, many headed to jobs on the Stanford campus, who often cut through local streets to avoid traffic jams.

Four years ago the Menlo Park City Council strongly opposed the Sand Hill Road project, in part due to fear of facilitating more development at Stanford and feeding more traffic into Menlo Park on an improved and widened Sand Hill Road. And it didn't help Stanford's cause that Palo Alto refused to permit Sand Hill traffic to connect directly with Alma Street.

But the City Council's steadfast refusal to widen the Menlo Park section of the road at the bridge over San Francisquito Creek was a holdout doomed to fail, which it ultimately did last year when then-mayor Steve Schmidt and the Menlo Park City Council agreed to Stanford's offer to pay for rebuilding the entire intersection.

Now Stanford is laying the groundwork for the $10 million rebuilding project, which will take place over the April-to-November building seasons for the next two years. In 2004, Sand Hill, Alpine, and Junipero Serra will be widened and streamlined.

The heaviest impact will come in 2005, when the 450-foot "throat" on Santa Cruz Avenue between the intersections will be closed to traffic for six months or more, while bulldozers dig 10 to 30 feet into the retaining wall to provide a new southbound traffic lane and bike lane. By this time, Alpine and Sand Hill roads will have been widened through the critical area, and will have capacity to move more traffic.

This project is going to happen, no matter how much people dislike it. The challenge is whether Stanford can now tinker with detailed plans to meet some of the problems they raise with neighbors.

In a series of neighborhood meetings, Stanford is seeking comments and suggestions on how to make the huge project as painless as possible. So far, many residents of affected communities have shown hostility, built up during decades of squabbling over the expansion of Sand Hill Road, and other issues involving Stanford.

In the West Menlo area near Oak Knoll School, residents are particularly bothered by cut-through traffic that weaves through narrow streets to avoid clogs at the intersections. They fear that the problem may get worse during construction, and may not improve afterward. Some want to consider narrowing the intersection where traffic from Oak Avenue joins Santa Cruz with a free right turn, to make Oak Avenue less inviting.

On the other side of the intersections, residents along Alpine Road, just outside of Menlo Park, face the longest detours when the "throat" is closed in 2005. Even though Alpine Road will remain open to Junipero Serra, residents need help in dealing with increased traffic along Alpine Road during and after construction. Some worry about how -- and when -- school buses will get their children to Las Lomitas and La Entrada schools when they have to take a long way around.

Stanford is working with the Las Lomitas School District and its bus company to work out the best solution to the school bus problem. Fortunately, they have more than a year to find a solution.

We should all appreciate Stanford's outreach efforts and hope they will continue. We also hope they will continue to listen to real concerns and practical suggestions from neighbors, and respond as much as possible.

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