Add Your Name to those letters to which you agree

Join your neighbors. Ask Stanford to withdraw its proposed high-density housing project.  Ask Portola Valley’s Town Council to address the high fire risk Stanford’s project would create by designating the Woodside Fire District to be the lead governmental agency to assess and resolve the risks. Ask the Planning Commission to apply our Affordable Housing ordinance to Stanford’s proposed project just like any other proposal. Ask our Planning and Building Department to resolve the project’s severe fire risks and failure to comply with our zoning ordinances now, before further action on Stanford’s application.

Why the letters?

Since early September the Woodside Fire Protection District has warned Stanford and the Town’s government in writing that the steep canyon site proposed by Stanford for its project created an extreme fire risk to the surrounding community, and that a different site should be found for such a project.  In a town whose fire danger rating is almost as high as that of Paradise, California just before the Camp Fire, the threat of wildland fire looms large and dangerously close.  

Neither the Town nor Stanford publicly disclosed the Fire District’s warnings and relocation request.  Instead, they have pushed the project forward with no disclosure of the increased fire risk the proposed project would create.  

Incredibly, when town residents learned of the Fire District’s warnings in late January and raised them at a January 30, 2020 Planning Commission hearing, the Commission’s chairman stated that the Commission had not considered the Fire District’s concerns and would not address or resolve them before proceeding with an environmental impact study of the project as proposed.  

Such extreme indifference to the safety of neighboring residents and the Town as a whole immediately prompted 250 residents to write Stanford demanding withdrawal of its “dangerous and needlessly reckless” proposal.  Letters sent by the Portola Valley Neighbors United

Read and Sign PVNU’s Letters

To Stanford:
Demand Stanford Withdraw Its Proposed Housing Project 

Add your name to those of more than 300 Portola Valley residents who are demanding that Stanford withdraw its proposal to build 30 residential buildings on 3 acres of a 7 acre development amidst steep, heavily vegetated open space land along Alpine Road in Portola Valley due to its high fire risk.

Read and Add Your Name to PVNU’s Letter to Stanford:

To Portola Valley’s Town Council:

Prioritize the health and safety of Town residents over increased development and direct Town staff to promptly and fully disclose the hazards and risks of Stanford’s project

Tell Portola Valley’s Town Council that you want prompt, full disclosure of the fire risks Stanford’s proposed project would create, and designation of the Woodside Fire Protection District as the lead governmental agency to review and resolve the project’s fire danger.  

Read and Add Your Name to PVNU’s Letter to the Town Council:

To Portola Valley’s Planning Commission:

Insist on Stanford’s compliance with the Town’s affordable housing ordinance

Ask the Planning Commission to explain why Stanford has not complied with the Town’s ordinance governing affordable housing projects, and why the Town’s Planning and Building Department has failed to require Stanford to do so.  

Read and Add Your Name to PVNU’s Letter to the Planning Commission

Read and Sign PVNU’s May 19 Letter to fire marshall don bullard

Read PVNU’s explanation of the extreme wildfire hazards of Stanford’s site and the severe risks it poses to hundreds of neighboring families and their properties

Learn why Stanford’s modeling understates the wildfire hazards of the site and fails to consider or address the wildfire risks it poses to Stanford’s neighbors

Read and Add Your Name to PVNU’s Letter to Fire Marshall Don Bullard

Read and Sign PVNU’s MAY 27 Letter to fire marshall don bullard

Read how Stanford’s development plan would exacerbate the wildfire hazards of Stanford’s site and the risks it poses to hundreds of neighboring families and their properties

Learn how Stanford’s subdivision plan would dramatically increase the maximum density of human occupation of its land while simultaneously reducing the minimum separation between structures and defensible space our General Plan and ordinances require for safe development, especially in such hazardous settings as Stanford’s site

Read and Add Your Name to PVNU’s Letter to Fire Marshall Don Bullard

read and sign pvnu’s july 21 letter to Portola Valley’s Town Council:

Prioritize wildfire safety and prevention over unsafe development and unmanaged lands

Tell Portola Valley’s Town Council that you want prompt, full disclosure of the wildfire risks confronting our town, enactment of wildfire safe land use policies and regulations, appointment of a Public Safety Officer to implement town-wide wildfire protection and evacuation procedures, and removal of excessive ladder fuels and dead vegetation throughout town.  

Read and Add Your Name to PVNU’s Letter to the Town Council: