Portola Valley residents get long look at Town Center visions Portola Valley residents get long look at Town Center visions (July 07, 2004)

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

Should Portola Valley's 11.2-acre Town Center include a substantial area dedicated to unstructured, tree-shaded park land with a creek running through it, recreational areas and parking lots dotted here and there, and a tree-lined road into the administrative complex?

Should the site concentrate its parking and vehicle traffic on the periphery and its soccer and softball fields in a large, open, sunny area in the interior, removing many mature trees but saving a corridor of park land to hide the interior from a busy roadway?

Can anyone combine these visions -- both of which reflect parts of six earlier plans developed by residents and Town Council members -- into a design the community will accept?

With the June 30 community workshop being the last of four recent workshops meant to study these questions, it was supposed to be fish-or-cut-bait time for the five-member council last Wednesday night in the presence of some 70 residents, many of whom had helped draft the plans.

But the council put off its decision, asking the architects they hired to delay preparing a master plan, refine the two visions with an eye toward a convergence, then let a wider audience take a look during July and August. The issue would return to the council early in September for a decision.

The architects' results would be available for study in the library and the Town Hall, and posted on the town's Web site at portolavalley.net.

Public comment

During the hour-long, public-comment period, Planning Commissioner Linda Elkind -- speaking as a private citizen -- noted the town's rural traditions and said the plan with the adjacent playing fields "begins to feel like an urban park."

But resident Sue Jaggers said she wants more space for parking and more asphalt to give kids a place to learn to ride a bike.

SallyAnn Reiss, who chairs the Parks & Recreation Committee, said the adjacent-playing-fields plan achieves a balance on open-space issues.

With the Town Center's long association with artists in residence, resident Bernie Bayuk noted a conspicuous absence of talk about an art gallery. "Let's not give up totally on art in Portola Valley," he said.

Council views

The councilmen expressed appreciation for both visions. Councilman Richard Merk said he was undecided, but skeptical of exposing Sausal Creek -- which now runs in an underground culvert -- because Portola Valley creeks tend to fill up and become dangerous in the winter.

Councilman Steve Toben said his first choice was the unstructured open space plan, but said his mind changed over concern for children's safety in crossing the access road. "There may be some benefit to (allowing) some more simmering of the stew here," he said in a nod to extending the deliberation.

"I'm not prepared to say 'go' with one of them," said Councilman Ted Driscoll. "I'd like the summer to be an iteration, circulation and simmering process."

Only Councilman Ed Davis was ready to vote that night. "We can always re-engineer it," said the retired engineer. "We should start getting to the point where we should start arguing about what should go in (on the site)."

Mr. Davis, who said he appreciated the "romantic and beautiful properties" of the creek, wanted nothing to do with opening it up, saying it was too risky.

Chief architect Larry Strain recommended that the creek be kept on the table. With professional guidance, communities are opening up buried creeks all the time with attractive and safe results, Mr. Strain told the Almanac.

Every citizen-team working out ideas at the recent community workshop included the creek in its design, he noted, despite some initially vigorous opposition.

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