Two and a half acres of open space may be coming to Portola Valley’s Westridge neighborhood if a group of residents can raise the money to pay its $1.6 million asking price.
The Committee to Protect Shady Trail has already raised $772,000 in pledges from eight or nine donors to acquire this undeveloped plot and its 0.8-mile trail near the intersection of Golden Hill and Westridge drives, said committee member Ginny Kavanaugh. The five-week-old campaign has to raise another $828,000 by a Thursday, Sept. 25, deadline.
The Town Council, relying on a recommendation by the town’s Open Space Acquisition Advisory Committee, agreed to contribute up to $100,000 from the town’s open-space acquisition fund, Ms. Kavanaugh said.
The list of donors includes an unnamed foundation that made an initial pledge of $400,000, and a subsequent “matching” pledge of $100,000 from Bill and Jean Lane, committee member Bev Lipman said.
“I think we’re doing very well,” Ms. Lipman noted. “I think it’s going to work. I hope it is.”
In a flier dated Sept. 4, Ms. Kavanaugh described the trail as “rich biologically,” and added that Paul Heiple, who chairs the town’s Conservation Committee, told her of “dozens of species of native plants” and many bird species attracted to the berries there.
Shady Trail runs just inside the property line, Town Administrator Angela Howard told the Almanac, adding: “I understand that it is a very nice, tranquil trail.”
An easement and a construction setback serve to insulate the trail regardless of who owns the property, she said. Converting the property to open space would prohibit all development on the land.
The trail is a “mostly intact” former dirt road from long ago when the property was part of the 1,400-acre Ormondale Farm, town historian Nancy Lund said in a written comment.
Contingencies
The town would contribute if an independent appraisal finds the property to be worth at least $1.6 million and if all the promised money is in the town’s bank account by the deadline, Councilman Steve Toben said in an Aug. 23 letter to Ms. Lipman.Included in the town’s proposal is up to $10,000 to cover appraisal and transaction costs, Mr. Toben said. The town would be the buyer of record, which would make the donations tax deductible and require the town to shoulder site maintenance duties, Ms. Lipman said.
The council proposed spending no more than $100,000 because the property and trail are not along a “scenic corridor,” Ms. Howard said. The parcel is hilly and has a “long, thin entrance” and would be “difficult” to develop, she added. Ms. Kavanaugh called it a “flag lot” because its dimensions resemble a flag on a pole.
“The town is not looking to buy this property unless someone else pays for (most of) it,” Ms. Howard said.
Portola Valley’s budget for 2007-08 shows a projected balance of $1.7 million set aside for the purchase of open space, including about $210,000 in new revenues from utility user taxes.
All the committee members — Ms. Kavanaugh, Ms. Lipman, Al Shreck and Mary Hufty — live near the trail, Ms. Kavanaugh said.
Support for the campaign has come from the town’s Trails and Paths Committee and from the Westridge Architectural Supervising Committee, she said.
The Committee to Protect Shady Trail is setting up a web site at www.theshadytrail.com. For more information, contact Mr. Shreck at 415-392-8971 or chrmn@montgomery-capital.com, or Ms. Lipman at 854-9199 or bevlipman@sbcglobal.net.
