What Are We For?
Fair Housing
To preserve our Town’s rural character and prevent adverse impacts on our residents, our housing policies should:
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Implement and fulfill our General Plan, not abandon it.
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Provide truly affordable housing for those who need it.
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Ensure equitable Town-wide compliance with State housing mandates.
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Reject disproportionate re-zoning or impact on specific lots or neighborhoods.
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Develop Town-owned land or open space to distribute the burden of additional housing equitably for all residents.
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Use the Town’s affordable housing funds as an incentive for residents to convert existing or build new housing to meet lower-income housing needs.
CZU Lightning Complex Fire
20 August 2020, viewed from Central Portola Valley
The California Constitution states that “protection of public safety is the first responsibility of local government”.
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Our Town’s highest priority should be Public Safety
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The Town’s zoning, subdivision, and building codes must be updated to incorporate objective fire-safe standards and defined best practices for wildfire prevention and protection
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The Town and its residents must upgrade and maintain existing development and infrastructure for wildfire resiliency and protection
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The Town must ensure adequate capacity and infrastructure for an urgent, town-wide evacuation
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The Town must implement a comprehensive Town-wide emergency evacuation program, and provide regular evacuation training and rehearsals for its residents
Safety
Character
Portola Valley is a small rural community set amidst irreplaceable natural splendor and habitat. To preserve this unique ecosystem and our rural character, we recognize:
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Portola Valley is blessed with native flora, fauna, and habitat that are rapidly vanishing.
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The 12 Elements of our General Plan provide an internally consistent set of policies for respecting and preserving Portola Valley’s valuable natural assets.
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The Town's development policies must adhere to the objectives and principles of our General Plan to conserve our fragile ecosystem and sustain our rural character over time.
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Urbanizing Portola Valley is not the future we want for our children or our ecosystem and will ill-serve our current and future residents.
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Our town provides a unique, regional gateway to parklands, wildlife, and open space for nearby communities that have denser, urbanized development.
Some members of our current Town Council do not share these concerns and do not well represent the residents of Portola Valley. We must elect Town Council members who endorse the values and actions we propose and who will listen to their constituents.
There will be three town council seats in November 2022. Service on Town Council is an act of generosity, love of community, and one of the greatest expressions of good citizenship. If you value town founder Bill Lane's core values of frugality, volunteerism, and respect for the land, please consider running for office, or encourage others to run. Those who do will find generous and strong support during their campaign and while in office.