About Us

Spin back the clock to the 1950s. Post-World War II planners, developers, and speculators have drawn up plans to transform the entire Bay Area into a Los Angeles-style mega metropolis that would have filled in much of the Bay and paved over most of our mountain ranges, hillsides, and coastal areas. Decision makers enthusiastically adopted these far-flung plans, and most people accepted them as inevitable. To accommodate this auto-centric sprawl, new freeways were planned to extend like spider webs across the landscape.

However, ordinary people who placed a higher value on protecting the environment spoke up loudly, clearly, and persistently. On the peninsula, a band of Palo Alto and Los Altos activists organized with the specific purpose of keeping “factories out of the foothills.” This original battle was lost and the Stanford Industrial Park was built, raising concerns that all of the foothills would disappear if a more concerted effort was not made to save them.

In May of 1962, twenty-seven citizens from the original open space battle regrouped and organized to preserve the foothills — thus Committee for Green Foothills began (renamed “Green Foothills” in 2020). Soon after its founding the organization expanded its reach, working to protect the open space, natural resources, and farmland in all of San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Green Foothills’ focus has always been to keep a vigilant eye on emerging and ongoing local land use issues involving open space. When a threat or opportunity arises, we address it nimbly and rapidly, and we engage community members to have a louder voice. Our expertise and reputation carries influence with decision-makers and, most importantly, we are effective, routinely delivering real environmental victories.