A bright orange/red placard emblazoned with the words “UNSAFE” and “DO NOT ENTER OR OCCUPY” has been greeting visitors to the property known as Pony Tracks Ranch at 495 Old Spanish Trail since Aug. 11 in the unincorporated hills above Portola Valley.
A San Mateo County code enforcement official red-tagged the premises of Luminar Technologies Inc. over a “defective” plumbing system that has allowed sewage to flow from the septic tank into nearby leach trenches for about three months, according to the county’s environmental health department.
The red tag “allows for a certain amount of time (approximately 10 days) for the violators to exit the property,” Code Compliance Officer Tim Sullivan said in an Aug. 16 email to neighbors. “They have been ordered to continue pumping the septic system as long and as many times as necessary to prevent further contamination.”
The property owner, Agape Community LLC of San Francisco, wrote to the neighbors on Aug. 18, saying that Luminar would move its business operations within the week.
These messages were welcome news to nearby residents, who have complained of the excessive traffic and noise resulting from the Luminar operation.
And for Stan Gage, whose home is on property adjacent to Pony Tracks Ranch, there’s been the added lament of foul odors, water contamination, septic tank pumping trucks — at first once a week, then three times a week and recently at least once a day — “green slime” in nearby drainage ditches, and new outdoor showers with no evidence of drains.
Luminar, through its attorney Mark Hudak, confirmed in a statement that the company’s computers “and other business belongings” would be removed beginning Aug. 21 to a “new facility in Menlo Park.”
As for continued use of the property by residents, including Luminar CEO Austin Russell, the company believes “that the structures continue to be safe for residential use,” the statement says. “Because there is no current health issue with the septic system,” the residents “should be allowed to return to their home immediately. … To date, there has been no evidence that effluent has escaped the leach field. There is no evidence that any other property has been affected by this condition.”
The site was once the estate of San Francisco mayor and California governor James “Sunny Jim” Rolph Jr., and more recently home to Jacques Littlefield and his invitation-only museum of military tanks and other restored mechanized implements of war. Mr. Littlefield died in 2009.
Zoning restrictions
Luminar is developing technology for autonomous vehicles, according to the company’s website. Mr. Sullivan, the code compliance officer, visited the site in June and July and reported seeing some 50 employees there on one occasion. Fourteen of the company’s 40 listed job openings are at its Silicon Valley site, with its 40,000-square-foot “engineering and vehicle integration facility.” Company headquarters are in Orlando, Florida.
“Luminar is fueled by a group of relentless optimists and fearless problem solvers who tirelessly design, build and deliver the future of LiDar,” a type of vehicle radar, the company says on its website.
The property is zoned “resource management,” a category related to conservation and open-space, according to the county zoning code. In its statement, Luminar cites a subsection of that designation — “scientific/technical research and test facilities” — as accommodating its activities.
Resource-management zoning includes restrictions on matters such as intensity of use, industrial activities, and the potential for health or safety hazards. In an Aug. 11 letter authorizing the red tag and rescinding a May 2 tag that had given the tenants “reasonable time to make appropriate repairs,” Gregory Smith, the water protection and land use supervisor for the county’s Environmental Health Department, informed the property owner that the residents had not met the following objectives related to the 1,500-gallon septic system.
• The septic system was to be used for residential purposes only.
• Water going into the septic system was to be kept to “a bare minimum to alleviate current stress.”
• The septic tank was to be pumped as needed and at least once a week to keep effluent from flowing into leach field trenches.
• Any connection to a sewer as an alternative would have to be completed by Aug. 11.
“To date, these directives have not been followed,” the letter says. Use of the septic system “far exceeds typical residential use,” Mr. Smith wrote. Water use “has not been limited to a bare minimum,” and pumping the septic tank has been “ineffective” in keeping effluent from flowing out. “For 3 months, effluent has continued to flow to the flooded trenches,” the letter says.
“Allowing the effluent level in the tank to flow to the leach trenches for more than 90 days alone could warrant a fine of more than $45,000,” he wrote.
He also noted that county’s Planning Department confirmed that the current use of the property requires a use permit, and that such a permit had not been obtained or applied for.
In its statement, Luminar says it has applied for a permit. “However, with the move scheduled for the upcoming week and the lease term ending on December 31, 2017, the permit application may not be pursued for timing reasons.”
Asked whether the county has levied a fine or is planning to do so, Environmental Health Department spokesperson Diana Rohini LaVigne replied by email: “Potential enforcement actions, including fines, are not something Environmental Health respond to as this is speculative. Our primary goal is always compliance, in order to protect Public Health.”
Neighbors comment
Mr. Gage, Luminar’s next-door neighbor, compiled months of complaints and forwarded them to the Almanac. In addition to the smells, water contamination and other concerns mentioned earlier in the story, there’s been excessive noise, he said.
The entry gate is controlled by a speaker phone, which results in audible broadcasts of gate entry exchanges. There are loud conversations, idling engines, doors slamming, horns honking, parties, people meeting their rides, noise “at all hours of the day and night,” Mr. Gage said.
There’s also been trespassing, he said. “An endless stream of strangers” entering and leaving the private properties of neighbors, telling them they’re lost or going for a hike, climbing over fences and sometimes forcing open gates, Mr. Gage said.
And there’s traffic. It’s been typical to see 12 to 15 vehicles entering Luminar per hour, he said, with drivers shouting into the gate phone at 2 or 3 in the morning. Sometimes there are traffic jams at the gate between entering and exiting vehicles, he said.
The traffic “is certainly not like a rural area,” Luminar neighbor Tom Garsh said. “It’s more like a business street. The traffic is horrendous and it’s noisy and it’s not what we bargained for when we moved here. … Some of the speeds they travel at are scary.”
Bill and Josephine Tagg, also neighbors, echoed Mr. Garsh’s comments. “A couple of hundred cars a day, a catering truck, sump pump trucks, a great big Coca Cola truck. The barn is lit up every night,” Mr. Tagg said.
“They’ve done nothing to get permits,” Ms. Tagg said. “We just feel like we’re being walked on, really. … If this could happen here, it could happen anywhere. Apparently you can get away with it as long as you don’t let the county know that you’re doing it.”
“It’s been extremely unpleasant,” said neighbor Sharon Ward. “The traffic is unbelievable. We thought we were living a resource management zone.”
With the phone entry system, they hear every dial, every answer, “hollering their names, hollering the password,” Mike Ward said. “You get the feeling of an industrial park. They’re trying to be nice, but they’re completely misusing the land.”
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