Excellent idea Peter but I hope the 2109 deadline is a typo.

Yes 2109 is a typo - should be 2019.

Thanks for pointing this out.

How many homes in Lindenwood?

Would another exit make a difference? In a catastrophic event, all traffic exiting from Lindenwood would come to a screeching halt when it hits the traffic on Middlefield, Ringwood, Bay, etc..

Look no further than the Middlefield flooding we used to have outside MA during el nino years - it tied up traffic by itself.

Your previous argument for a 2nd lane on Marsh was valid, however.

"Would another exit make a difference? "

Yes - Emergency exits onto Marsh East of the (strangely) opened channel could flow easily as could exits onto Bay Road.

EVERY wind driven fire from the Oakland hills to Paradise shows that evacuation by automobile has its own risks.

Therefore, as in the Walsh Road Evacuation plan, well-marked pedestrian emergency egress points would make a big difference.

Peter. This area has never had the high winds the other fire areas have experienced. Cool heads will show that the risk is virtually non existent and the exits in Lindenwood are numerous, not like one lane roads out of the forest.

"This area has never had the high winds the other fire areas have experienced."

I have certainly experienced high winds in Atherton - not frequently by it only takes once.

" the exits in Lindenwood are numerous"

No, there are only seven and none on Bay or Marsh. Try driving out of Lindenwood at 8 AM and you will appreciate the limited capacity of even the existing seven roads.

Walsh Road Here: Peter Carpenter is correct that we made substantial efforts to create plans in case of fire or earthquake with collapse of the earthen dam Bear Gulch (part of California Water Company). However, we do not have a satisfactory conclusion. Each year there is a test of the siren located at the dam that would warn of the collapse of the dam. Unfortunately, the siren is not loud enough to reach even part way east on Walsh. We have reported this to the police in the past with no changes. There was discussion of getting permission to cross the golf course to escape, but to my knowledge that was never put into action with signage. We suggested using the road from CA Water up to Moore Road, but that was vetoed in favor of First Responders' access coming along the one-lane road to Walsh Road. We have fewer exits from Walsh Road than Lindenwood. I've been warned not to try to drive out in the case of wild fire; the fire could use up the available oxygen and leave the car motionless with fire on both sides.

I hope for success in greater protection for Lindenwood. I hope there will be action that completes what is needed and doesn't stall partway to solutions.

Walsh Road Reporter - You are describing what happens when citizens give the Town a gift, the Walsh Road Evacuation Plan which was developed by a small group of citizens when the Town refused to do so, that the Town then fails to take care of. That is why citizens can never rest in holding their government accountable.

As far a the siren is concerned the Fire District, which does not have the legal responsibility for emergency notification, has nevertheless invested $90k to purchase a voice alerting system called LRAD that provide audible verbal warnings and instructions over a large area:


Web Link

The Fire District will test the LRAD at different locations and then decide how to deploy such units District wide.

Peter

Are you suggesting the government exercise eminent domain to create pedestrian exit routes from Lindenwood?

I am demanding that the Town solve the egress problem - how they do it is up to them.

I would suggest that cooperative agreements would be a better tool than eminent domain. That was what was done with Cal Water and the Walsh Road Evacuation Plan.

Good luck

"Are you suggesting the government exercise eminent domain to create pedestrian exit routes from Lindenwood?"

"I am demanding that the Town solve the egress problem - how they do it is up to them."

Well, as a practical matter, eminent domain *is* the most likely path to resolution.

Yes, it's possible that some homeowner will do a good deed and allow egress onto their property. To anyone willing to volunteer their (very expensive!) land for egress...well god bless them.

But more pragmatically, if I were in that boat I'd question the wisdom of letting the public access my property without compensation; not only that, I'd still have to pay property taxes on the land that is no longer exclusively for my use.

That said, Holbrook Palmer Park does have an example of pedestrian-only egress from the park, between the park and Felton Gables. Perhaps that could be used as a model for creating egress from Lindenwood?

I don't live in Atherton, but I can understand Peter Carpenter's request to find better ways of ingress and egress in and out of the Lindenwood Neighborhood. Why would anybody want to turn down additional ways to provide life saving access? The rapidly traveling and deadly fires statewide are not limited to poor communities - fire can and do strike all levels of economic standing. Allowing Police, Ambulance and Fire both ingress and egress is a no brainer. Other emergencies may also prompt the need for better routes, not only for cars, but "assembly areas", walking paths, helicopter landing spots, etc. in the event of not only fires, but potentially for floods, active shooters, bomb scares, unexpected emergencies caused by lighting, terrorism, aircraft crashing, meteor and space debris falling and a host of other unthinkable emergencies. If you want privacy, that is one thing, but keep in mind, sometimes one needs to be careful with what they wish for - as you may just get it when you least want it - and an emergency may just be one of those times - when privacy has its limits. Suggest the Atherton City Council and Staff take a lesson from Walsh Road, take a lesson from Paradise California, take a lesson from Coffee Park, take a lesson from the fire in Malibu, or instead, you can take the position that "it will never happen here".