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In a town whose general plan puts determined and repeated emphasis on preserving the natural environment and the town’s rural character, is there room in that vision for a playing field covered in artificial grass? That’s the question facing the Portola Valley Town Council on Wednesday, May 8.
The Woodside Priory School has applied for permission to replace its nonstandard running track with a standard quarter-mile oval, and received a green light from the Planning Commission in March to use artificial grass on the track’s interior field, currently natural grass. It was a close 3-2 vote, with the majority citing private property rights and two years of poking at the project, but a public outcry over a conflict with the vision embodied in the general plan and zoning laws led the council to decide to review the commission’s decision.
The vote to review the Planning Commission’s decision was 4-1, with Councilwoman Ann Wengert dissenting.
The council meets at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 8, in the Historic Schoolhouse and will consider three options, according to a staff report:
■ The council can find the artificial surface consistent with the “general purpose and intent of the town’s zoning ordinance and general plan” and allow the Priory to go ahead immediately. This option would include council approval of the school’s conditional use permit (CUP) and the project’s environmental documents, which establish a less-than-significant impact from a 2.5-acre field of artificial grass.
■ The council could find inconsistency in the above criteria, still approve the environmental documents, but add a condition to the CUP requiring that the field be natural grass. The council’s decision would be final in 30 days.
■ The council could order a revision to the environmental documents, have the revision circulated for public comment, and add a condition to the CUP requiring a natural grass field. Final action would likely be delayed until at least July, staff said.
With an area of some 6400 acres, this proposed field of 2.5 acres is some 00.039% of the area of the Town of Portola Valley. It allows the kids from Town to play soccer for many months of the year when the field would otherwise be closed. PV won’t lose it’s rural character, and this teeeeeny amount of land won’t have a material impact on PV wildlife. Thank you Priory for offering to pay this additional cost, to allow the local kids extended playing/practice seasons.
No water wasted.
No herbicides.
No pesticides.
No gas powered mowers.
No broken ankles from gopher holes.
“Can ‘green’ Portola Valley coexist with artificial grass?”
Seems like an obvious answer!
I though the issue was resolved and the project approved by the town. Am I mistaken???
When Bill Lane is looking down on Portola Valley, I don’t think he imagined that he would ever see a big piece of plastic in the middle of our town. I don’t really want to see it on my daily hikes when I look down from Windy Hill either. If you want plastic, go east of 280, they have plenty there. Let’s stick with the rural character that defines Portola Valley.
Obstructing the po’ widdle view from up on Windy Hill?
So do buildings. And roads scar the landscape, too, so pull them all down, also! On top of that, hijack the memory of a dead guy (who donated a ton o’ cash to build things in Stanford made of wood, plastic and concrete that you can also view from the top of Windy Hill) and claim him to be on ‘your’ side.
Turf saves water. Cheaper to maintain. Allows more use and higher capacity. No pesticides and fertilizer. Safer surface for kids and adults.
Fight facts with facts, please.
If you have any.
But hey, job well done in hijacking the dead guy — heck, I almost forgot: Ronald Reagan (Bill’s old boss) wants to endorse turf!
To Icon Theft: Why do you have to be so mean in your reply? People can have differing views and judge things on different criteria. If that person feels like a view is important, who are you to say otherwise — and why do you have post something that reads so disrespectfully? Be nice.
What is least desirable? One writer has a perceived mean ‘tone’ while another is apparently selfish of his/her view during a daily walk. Clearly, I know with which one I rather hike, although the other is fact-driven.
I think it is probably safe to assume that the majority of the people who support the turf field are families of students or alumni of Priory and that those opposing have a more naturalistic bent to their views. The interesting question that no one has raised yet is if the town makes an exception to Priory and allows the turf, will they be so lenient when homeowners want something as well… say a larger deck, a larger basement, a tennis or basketball court etc? For a town that has so much of its reputation caught up in being green and encouraging green policies and codes for building, this provides an interesting dilemma. What a hot seat town officials will be in when an individual homeowner wants to do something on their personal property that has a similar dilemma. After all, isn’t one of the many arguments being used in favor of Priory getting their turf is that it is their property and they can do what they want to on it?
Nicely done, PV resident — a classic ‘slippery slope’ informal fallacy argument!
Along the lines of: “if they check gun purchases to keep criminals and the insane from buying, it’s a slippery slope to a gun registry, then the movie ‘Red Dawn’ becomes true with the Commie Ruskies invading, and taking away all the (registered) guns.”
If we let Priory do (arguably) the correct action, it’s the camel nose under the tent, and pretty soon, there will be skyscrapers in downtown PV. Beware the slippery slope. Who knows where it will stop!
The other fallacy above is also clever; the insincere sophistry of bringing deceased persons into the argument.
Just a thought. I heard that artificial turf gets hot on sunny days. If true, then what’s that like to play on?
Marie: yes, on a really hot day, it will feel warmer than grass.
I haven’t looked it up, check on how many 90+ degree days they have in PV, for me, will ya? (ie.. this ain’t Phoenix, Texas or Alabama!)
I’m a youth soccer referee. There are plenty of artificial turf soccer fields all over the Peninsula, including west of 280 (have you seen the beautiful fields at Half Moon Bay HS and the brand, spanking new ones at Cunha Middle School in HMB?) From your vista on Windy hill, you will not be able to tell that it is turf, if you can see it at all. From my experience a variety of youth soccer groups play at Priory, including AYSO. Turf fields require no water, don’t have to be re-striped, no need to apply pesticides or contend with gophers. Soccer is a great activity for area youth and having state-of the-art turf fields are just as “green”, if not greener, than a high maintenance grass field. IMHO