Mercury News
July 12, 2006

Campus halts work on trail

Alpine Road path draws lawsuit, causing delay in plan near Page Mill Road

By Joyce Chen

In response to an environmental group’s recent lawsuit over a recreational trail, Stanford University has in turn decided to halt construction on an accompanying pathway.

Stanford will delay construction on the “S-1” trail along Page Mill Road, one of two new trails approved by Santa Clara County in December. The suit, which the Committee for Green Foothills filed in June, challenges the county's decision to build a second pathway, known as “C-1,” along Alpine Road in San Mateo County.

Stanford agreed in December 2000 to build two recreational trails in exchange for permission from Santa Clara County to erect new buildings on campus. However, the question of where to place those trails has been the source of a long-running controversy. Critics have assailed the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors’ vote to let Stanford build one of the trails along busy Alpine Road, essentially passing the problem onto neighboring San Mateo County.

“Although we believe that Santa Clara County will prevail in the lawsuit, litigation is very serious,” Stanford representative Larry Horton said. Until the legality of both trails is confirmed, he said, “we’re simply postponing additional work on the Page Mill trail.”

Lennie Roberts, legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills, called Stanford’s decision “disappointing,” since there was no challenge to the Page Mill pathway in the suit.

“This is another Stanford tactic that is not too helpful. They’ve already delayed building these trails for five years,” she said. “There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to proceed with the Page Mill trail.”

Stanford general counsel Debra Zumwalt said the suit directly affects both planned projects.

“The lawsuit tries to say it’s only challenging the Alpine trail, but the county board of supervisors approved one agreement covering two trails,” she said. “You don’t get to pick and choose.” Zumwalt added that the university plans to file a response to the suit saying that the legal claim is “completely without merit” and should be thrown out.

The lawsuit cites a lack of environmental review in the planning of the 12-foot-wide Alpine trail, which could cost Stanford up to $11 million. Roberts said the heavy traffic in the area was a major environmental consideration.

“Where Stanford proposes the C-1 trail is adjacent to Alpine Road, which carries 30,000 cars a day,” she said. “Anybody using the trail will be subjected to all that traffic and exhaust from cars.” Roberts added that other concerns include runoff into San Francisquito Creek that could damage native endangered species, and potential collisions with local residents trying to back out of driveways.

While work on the Page Mill trail, begun in June, has been postponed, the hotly contested Alpine trail has yet to begin construction at all, pending approval from San Mateo County and Portola Valley. San Mateo County supervisor Rich Gordon said a subcommittee consisting of himself and supervisor Jerry Hill is investigating the university’s proposal for the trail.

“We obviously are aware of the lawsuit,” he said, “but I don’t see that it has an immediate impact on anything we may do at the moment.”

Page last updated September 13, 2010.