CGF: Take Action: Private school threatens blue oaks, Town General Plan

Private school violates Woodside's General Plan
Posted October 19, 2001 / Updated October 1, 2002

News flash: The Town of Woodside denied this project in late September, and the Phillips Brooks School decided not to appeal the decision. Learn more in the News section of our website.

• What's proposed
• Compliance with Woodsides's General Plan
• Specific violations of the General Plan
• The clear position of the environmental community
• What you can do

Read the Committee for Green Foothills' July 2002 letter regarding Phillips Brooks School's illegal destruction of endangered species habitat.

What's proposed
The Phillips Brooks School is proposing to build a private school on a 92-acre parcel of oak woodlands located along Highway 280 between Sand Hill and Woodside Road.

The school would include:
  • 290 students
  • 40 teachers and staff
  • 34,000 square feet of building
  • 85 parking spaces and extensive paved roads

The project's environmental impacts are significant
If approved, this project would set a dangerous precedent of development along the western corridor of Sand Hill Road. It would place a significant daytime population in a rural, wooded area with limited access, which is both dangerous and ecologically unsound. The school would generate additional 782 new vehicle trips each weekday, and significant traffic from weekend games.

What the school is asking
In order to get permission to build this school, the developer has applied to the Town of Woodside for a number of exceptions to the rules: a use permit to allow a change in zoning, a use permit to allow development within the stream corridor, a variance to develop slopes steeper than 35%, and a variance to allow paving of more than 9,000 square feet.

In order to grant the developer these rights, the Town Planning Commission must make certain necessary "findings."

The project does not comply with Woodside's General Plan
Woodside's General Plan was carefully crafted to limit new development and land uses to those that are compatible with the rural qualities of the Town, and that "preserve and enhance Woodside as a scenic, rural residential community," and "conserve the natural environment of the Town and ...minimize the disturbance of the natural terrain."

This project very clearly and directly conflicts with these goals. Read about the conflicts with Woodside's General Plan here.

Woodside's professional planning staff opposes project
The reasoned statement issued by the Town's professional planning staff underscores that this project should not be approved, because it is inconsistent with the Town General Plan. The staff report clearly details that 13 of the necessary 18 findings can not be made, and staff therefore recommends that the use permits and variances not be approved.

Learn more in the Woodside Planning staff Executive Summary.

There are better alternatives
Under the area's restrictive zoning, this sensitive site could be developed with nine residential homes -- which would generate far less intensive use than a school of this size, and would be consistent with the Town General Plan. Zoning standards would limit the homes' size, height, location, and design so they would blend into the natural surroundings. Most importantly, this kind of development would not violate the Town General Plan. Alternatively, the site could be preserved as public, private, or institutional open space.

For more information, read the October 3, 2001 Country Almanac article on the proposed development.

The clear position of the environmental community
The environmental community is united in opposition to this project. Committee for Green Foothills, Acterra, the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club, and the Sequoia Audubon Society have written a joint letter to the Woodside Planning Commission asking that this project be denied.

Read our May 10, 2002 letter here (PDF file, 87k).

What you can do

1. Become informed.
Read Committee for Green Foothills' comment letter on the Draft Environmental Impact Report for this project

Download the letter as a PDF file (35k).
Read our May 10, 2002 letter to the Woodside Planning Commission here (PDF file, 87k).

And read the specific violations of the General Plan here .

2. Tell the Town of Woodside that you oppose this development.
Woodside Planning Commission
Attention: Hope Sullivan, Planning Director
P.O. Box 620005
Woodside, CA 94062 Fax (650) 851-2195

Woodside Town Council
P.O. Box 620005
Woodside, CA 94062 Fax (650) 851-2195

3. Attend the Woodside Planning Commission hearings on this proposal.
The next meeting will be held in Sellman Auditorium, at Woodside Elementary School, to accommodate the expected crowds.

Wednesday, May 15, 7:30pm

4. Write a Letter to the Editor.
San Mateo County Times - Fax (650) 348-4446 - hangney@angnewspapers.com
Country Almanac - Fax (650) 854-0677 - editor@calmanac.com
Palo Alto Weekly - Fax (650) 326-3928 - letters@paweekly.com
Palo Alto Daily News - Fax (650) 327-0676 - editorial@paloaltodailynews.com

5. Support Committee for Green Foothills.
Become a CGF member or make a donation.


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