Town of Portola Valley

Town Offices Portola Valley 94028 Administration: 851-1700 765 Portola Road Library: 851-0560 4575 Alpine Road San Mateo County Sheriff: Emergency 911 Business 363-4911 Fire Department: Emergency 911 Business 851-1594 3111 Woodside Road, Woodside 94062 Facts and Statistics Incorporated: July, 14, 1964 Town Operating Budget (2007-2008): $16.25 million Population 2007 estimated: 4,618 2000 census: 4,462 1990 census: 4,194 Housing Total households (2000): 1,772 Persons per household (2000): 2.52 Single family housing (2000): 74.6% Median home selling price (2007): $1,910,000

History

The town of Portola Valley sits in a peaceful valley astride the San Andreas Fault. Since incorporation in 1964, development has been slow and the town has kept a rural ambiance reminiscent of days gone by.

The origins of the modern town of Portola Valley are in the little logging town of Searsville that stood along Sand Hill Road from the 1850s until 1891. It offered services for the men who came to cut the redwoods for the post gold rush building boom. By the dawn of the twentieth century, the redwoods were mostly gone, Searsville had been abandoned, and a reservoir, known today as Searsville Lake, had been created. The area became a place of small farms and large estates. Immigrants from Ireland, Portugal, Croatia, Italy, China, the Philippines, Chile, and Germany joined the Californios to raise strawberries, herd cattle and cut firewood. The large landowners came from San Francisco to escape the summer fog. A few were year round residents.

Extensive residential development did not begin until after World War II, and by the early 1960s, many residents had become alarmed by increasing pressures for housing and business expansion. Therefore, in 1964, they voted to incorporate in order to have local control over development. The goals were to preserve the beauty of the land, to foster low-density housing, to keep government costs low by having a cadre of volunteers, and to limit services to those necessary for local residents.

In the view of many, a good balance between modern development and pastoral quiet exists in the community today. Nineteen hundred acres of permanent open space exist within the town. Residents continue to treasure the town’s environmental and historic heritage, its excellent public schools and its town government staffed by a multitude of volunteers.

Portola Valley operates under a council-mayor form of government. A council is elected to govern the town through resolutions and ordinances. It appoints officers, commissions and committees. The mayor, who is elected annually by majority vote of the council, presides over the council. The Town Administrator, appointed by the council, is in charge of the offices at the town hall and responsible for administering policies and decisions of the council. The council meets the second and fourth Wednesdays monthly.