Meet the candidates in Woodside's uncontested council election

In a year of significant upheaval, the 2020 Woodside Town Council election appears to be smooth sailing. The races for four seats up for election this year, in districts 1, 3, 5 and 7, are all uncontested. Per the town charter, town officials are required to hold a council election to allow for the possibility of write-in candidates.

Councilmen Daniel Yost (District 1) and Tom Livermore (District 5) have declined to run for reelection, leaving open seats.

Attorney Jenn Wall, candidate for District 1, and management consultant John Carvell, candidate for District 5, are running unopposed, as are two incumbents, Chris Shaw (District 3) and Mayor Ned Fluet (District 7). Both Wall and Carvell would be newcomers to the council, but each has experience serving on town committees.

Woodside’s Town Council candidates spoke with The Almanac about their priorities and some key town issues such as safer roads, helping to promote fire safety efforts and preserving Woodside’s rural character while addressing the need for adding more housing as required by the state.

Jenn Wall (District 1)

Attorney Jenn Wall, a resident of Woodside since 2012, called herself “an interested stakeholder in the future of Woodside.”

“Just to be involved in how the town develops over time, in the policy, in the direction that it takes, those things are important to me because I want to raise my kids here. It’s a town that I’ve really come to love. It’s such a special place and so I want to make sure that it stays that way,” Wall said.

She was appointed to the town’s Circulation Committee in 2019.

Wall said she’s interested in continuing to advocate for the Safe Routes to School program, which promotes biking and walking to school, and improving road safety around schools through a combination of education, law enforcement and infrastructure improvements.

“That was something that was also a priority for the Circulation Committee, and it’s been making progress recently. A sidewalk was recently built along the north side of Woodside Road which has definitely enabled more kids to be able to walk to school, including my own,” she said.

Wall noted that the growth of outdoor dining in the town center this summer, though it arose out of necessity from the pandemic, has only highlighted the area’s draw. With parking already limited, she emphasized improving accessibility to the town center for other modes of transportation besides driving so that residents can more easily travel to the area on foot, by bike or on horseback.

A priority for her even before COVID has been “helping to find ways to create more paths around town that can help people get to the town center. I think that’s an important issue,” she said.

Noting Woodside’s large community of cyclists, Wall said she would like to see more road safety measures to accommodate bicyclists.

“One thing I would love to see is more prominent markings for bike lanes and turning lanes,” she said, like at the intersection of Woodside Road and Highway 280.

Wall’s term on the Planning Commission began this spring, around the time of the pandemic shutdown. The commission has met virtually since the start of her tenure, which Wall noted has made for an unusual experience, since she hasn’t had a chance to meet her fellow commissioners face to face. But she said she doesn’t think the online format has impeded the commission’s work.

On the topic of bringing more affordable housing to town, Wall mentioned the recent state law that relaxed some requirements for building granny flats, also known as accessory dwelling units (ADUs), as a promising option for adding housing in a way that would also help maintain town character. The Woodside council recently amended its own ADU ordinance to bring it into compliance with the new state law, with the aim of creating more affordable housing.

“I think we all want to see Woodside continue to have a rural character. I go hiking here all the time. I use the trails behind my house. And so I think it’s an example of healthy tension: that we do want to preserve the rural character of Woodside, but also to do what we can increase the amount of affordable housing,” she said.

With the wildfire season growing longer and this year even more of an imminent threat to the region, Wall said she’s interested in continuing to advance the cause of fire safety. As someone who grew up in California, she said,”It’s really sad for me to see these types of fire events now are our new normal.”

She said she wants to make sure that town officials are doing the very best they can to keep residents, homes, animals and horses as safe as possible.

Chris Shaw (District 3)

Chris Shaw is a 27-year resident of Woodside and the incumbent for District 3 after being elected to the Town Council in 2015. Shaw said that he learned very quickly what sets local governance apart from higher levels of government is that in a town of 5,000, with constituents who are friends and neighbors — people one may encounter while at the store or post office. “By default you must govern from the center. You can’t play the extreme far left or far right all about political gain,” he said.

“I think there’s nothing better than issues coming before the council or getting an email from constituents and working to solve the problems for both sides of the issue,” he said.

While the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t imposed the financial burdens on Woodside that many other communities are experiencing, it still has brought some changes to the town. He said he’s proud of the town allocating money in the form of $10,000 grants from the general fund to support local businesses through the San Mateo County Strong program.

Shaw commended the town staff on quickly adapting to the new working conditions, noting that the town moved quickly to put the proper protocols in place to ensure, for example, that the Planning and Building Department could continue running and doing inspections.

He also said that with outdoor dining at restaurants in the town center proving popular with residents and visitors, he’d like to see the practice continue, and expand to restaurants elsewhere in the community.

With the recent nearby CZU complex fires, wildfires are top of mind lately, and Shaw said that fire safety has been a long-standing priority for him.

“One of the things that I’ve worked at since day one is trying to raise awareness of and direct funding toward the existential threat of fire in our area. I can’t think of a single bigger threat to livelihoods, natural resources, you name it, and it comes around every year,” he said.

Shaw said some of the town’s fire prevention initiatives were its “best-kept secrets and that’s a shame,” including programs such as the Defensible Space and Home Hardening Matching Fund Program, which provides grants to residents who, with the guidance of the Woodside Fire Protection District, address fire hazards on their properties like overgrown vegetation or combustible roofs. The town also has a hazardous tree removal program for trees that pose a high fire danger, such as eucalyptus.

Traffic and road safety, another key issue for the town, is complex, with many stakeholders. Shaw said he recognizes that there are sometimes “competing interests,” from residents needing to travel around town and visitors on their way to the coast to bicyclists out for a ride and equestrians looking to access the town’s network of trails.

He pointed to something the town did while he’s been on the council. On Canada Road, Whiskey Hill Road and on Woodside Road through town, Woodside narrowed the travel lane where possible, which slows traffic and creates more space to separate cars and bicycles, he said.

Shaw has been active with the Safe Routes to School program and said he would like to see greater walkability in the town.

“I think one of the big holes in the community is walking paths. I don’t think Woodside is nearly as walkable as it should be,” he said, though he noted that improvements to some of the walkways through the Glens were recently completed and the next phase of the project will be going to the Circulation Committee.

With new Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) numbers on the horizon — housing goals set by the state on an eight-year cycle — Shaw raised concerns about what he described as “relentless erosion of local control.”

Nonetheless, he said, “I’m proud that in the last two RHNA cycles, we met and exceeded our numbers for secondary dwelling units.”

Though Shaw said it may help add some housing units in town, he also expressed caution about the town’s recent loosening of some restrictions on building ADUs, noting that the update allows homeowners to build them within 4 feet of the property line, which on smaller lots may not necessarily be in keeping with the “rural” quality that’s a draw in Woodside.

“One of the reasons that people move to raise families in Woodside is the ability to have a bit of land with setbacks that mean you’re not staring into the neighbor’s bedroom,” he said.

He acknowledged that such objections may be perceived as NIMBYism, but takes issue with what he describes as a “one-size-fits-all” application of housing numbers mandated by the state, emphasizing concerns about setting a precedent that could pave the way for additional changes to Woodside that would not take the character of the town or the wishes of its residents into account.

John Carvell (District 5)

John Carvell is a management consultant and a partner at 38 Degree Advisors, a financial services firm, who has lived in Woodside since 2011.

He and his wife walk the neighborhoods and talk with a lot of neighbors, “one of the advantages to having a dog, you get out and meet a lot of people,” Carvell said.

Conversations with neighbors while out on those walks eventually led Carvell to seek a position with the homeowners association’s Architectural and Site Review Board.

Since Carvell and his wife have renovated several homes on the Midpeninsula, and he served on the Woodside Hills Homeowners Association Architectural Review Board, he said neighbors would ask his thoughts as they shared frustrations with delays or inconsistencies in getting town approval even for small projects, such as installing a gate or fence.

“People asked me if I could sort of be a bit of a homeowner advocate — or not necessarily an advocate, but just somebody who has gone through it and been on the other side of the table and could understand.”

Carvell said one of his priorities on the council would be to streamline some planning and building processes where possible. As an example, he cited a simplified process already enacted by the town where approval for fences and gates used to go to the Woodside Architectural and Site Review Board and require a lengthy notice period. The process has been streamlined to require review from a town planning official, rather than signoff by the board.

“I think that could be extended to other things, if people are within the guidelines and within the codes. Do you need to have the extra meeting or can it just be noticed?” he said.

He said he’s mindful of maintaining “community spirit,” trying to avoid situations in the review process that would pit neighbors against each other and also for ways in which the town can help bring relief in challenging situations. He pointed to town officials’ responsiveness to local restaurants, streamlining the permit process to allow for more outdoor dining during the coronavirus pandemic.

As a bicyclist, Carvell has experienced some of the safety issues on local roads and would like to see shoulders added in areas such as Woodside Road near Wunderlich Park, which he said would help give bicyclists space to move away from passing cars.

Carvell noted that fire safety initiatives are more the province of the fire district, but he said the town should continue to support the fire district’s efforts on brush removal and provide information on the chipper program and removing eucalyptus trees.

Carvell said that he expects housing will continue to be a complex topic for Woodside and other local communities.

Particularly now, with the pandemic altering where people choose to live, and prompting some to leave the state altogether, Carvell said it doesn’t make sense to plan for higher density, especially in a rural community.

But the town recently made its rules less restrictive for homeowners to add ADUs, and that can help, he said.

This summer, Woodside updated its ADU ordinance to bring it into compliance with a state law aimed at increasing affordable housing stock. Every town and city has a goal number for adding housing that’s laid out by the state’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), updated every eight years. A regional board, the Association of Bay Area Governments, helps determine each community’s allotment.

“We have continued to make accessory dwelling units available. The permitting for them and review process for them was very supportive of that for homeowners and those can count toward housing units. So I think it’s sort of continuing with the ADUs, that direction, and pushing back on some of the regional boards on what our allotment is going to be,” he said.

Ned Fluet (District 7)

Incumbent Ned Fluet is currently serving as Woodside mayor, an honorary position that rotates among council members.

He said that during his time on the council so far, he’s proud of the fact that some planning and building processes have been streamlined.

“We have been able to make the building and planning process in town just a little bit easier by cutting out red tape or giving residents more power to build the homes, the projects they want,” he said.

He said that he’s also proud that the Glens redevelopment plan, after many public meetings, community input and a “tremendous amount of work by staff,” was finalized.

Although the coronavirus pandemic slowed town business for a short time, and the shutdown did halt construction, Fluet said that for the most part, everything has stayed on track.

“For all intents and purposes, there was really no closure of town government. And very quickly, our staff figured out how to do everything remotely,” he said, adding that he is “so thankful to the town staff” for their adaptability.

An ongoing issue in Woodside is traffic and road safety, particularly drivers taking local roads at dangerous speeds and even racing each other. The council and town officials have been working with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office on stepping up enforcement and discouraging speeding, Fluet said.

“We’ve been working really closely with our local sheriffs to get more citations up on the hills. And we’ve also been working cooperatively with the (California Highway Patrol) really to get more resources and make it a less friendly place for those who want to engage in risky behavior like that,” he said.

Emergency preparedness, and fire safety in particular, are enduring issues for the town, and Fluet said that the town’s Defensible Space and Home Hardening Matching Grant Program has recently seen strong growth.

“We expanded our defensible space program — we increased the amount of money that the town will give, as far as grants — and the numbers have spoken for themselves, we’ve had a huge increase in people taking advantage of the program this year (which) has been fantastic. It makes our communities safer with individual residents taking control over their property,” he said.

Fluet cited fire safety as an additional factor in how best to add affordable housing to the town. Keeping density low not only is consistent with the town’s more rural nature, but also helps protect the local environment and doesn’t place large development in areas prone to fire danger.

“Whether people agree or disagree with the issue, increasing our affordable housing numbers is going to be something we have to deal with. I think one of the best ways to do that is to make it easier for people to build ADUs on their properties,” he said.

That is something that the council has already aimed to do, he noted, in relaxing some of the restrictions for building accessory dwelling units.

“(Adding ADUs) is one way to increase our affordable housing numbers, provide more housing for folks who want to live in Woodside but at the same time preserve what is a very sensitive ecosystem,” Fluet said.

Fire safety and prevention are the most prominent pieces, especially right now, in a bigger picture of preparedness and community resiliency.

“We still live in earthquake country, now we have to deal with pandemics — how do we make this town stronger, more resilient, whatever the environment throws at us?” Fluet said, pointing to the importance of improving communication with residents. That includes getting more people signed up with the county’s SMC Alerts system and the town’s own alert system.

However, one major hurdle to better communication, Fluet said, is the inconsistent reliability of internet service in Woodside.

Getting reliable internet service throughout the town is a project he somewhat jokingly calls his “baby,” but he notes the need is serious.

“It’s not just a matter of having Netflix, but in this day and age, the internet is a lifeline. And the fact that parts of our town do not have reliable internet because they just simply don’t have access to the large providers needs to change,” he said.

It’s taking time and some “creativity,” but Fluet said that progress is slowly being made toward improving connectivity in those areas.

Email Heather Zimmerman at hzimmerman@almanacnews.com