Absolutely horrific spot for housing, and the Fire Marshall has been crustal clear that this is the WORST place for density. I saw those story poles today—-are you kidding? There isn’t another structure on Alpine Road that sits that close to the road and is two stories tall. Even the church is set back further. Stanford said that the housing would be set much further back into the landscape (which also adds to fire danger) and here we go again—-Stanford not following through on promises. The Town Council is so intent on housing—they literally refused to fight this mandate, in spite of multiple other communities doing so—and are not listening to anything that our town citizens or fire experts are telling them. In fact, Stanford was not even considering developing this site until a member of the Town Council contacted them about it directly. Seeing that member then feature in another article about losing their fire insurance—-what an absolute crock. What a disaster this whole thing is.

WOW, ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVEABLE. The way this is even being considered is beyond me. Just look at the Caldor fire!!! Why has the council been so motivated to develop this? The whole thing is suspicious!!!

Are readers supposed to get teary that one old horse will have to move to a new pasture to make way for a group of middle-income Stanford families with young kids? (Or is Portola Valley getting teary because they love that the second sentence of their wikipedia entry reads "In 2016 it had the highest per-capita income among U.S. communities with a population larger than 4,000.[5]."
Are readers supposed to believe that modest housing along with vegetation management on this parcel will somehow increase fire danger to Portola Valley? Ummmm. It's pretty well known now that wildfires are predominately burning in places where vegetation is NOT managed.
PLEASE. Not only does Portola Valley need to wake up to itself, but the Almanac needs to stop publishing junk like this.

Happy to see a voice of reason from La Estrada parent! 100% agree, including the journalistic decision to focus on the horse when housing is such an urgent unmet need.