Portola Valley Weekly Update February 9, 2023

This week's update:

• Town Council Summary Feb 8, 2023
• Updated Housing Element Adoption Timeline
• Woodside Fire Protection District Considering Two New Ordinances on Designating a WUI and Creating a Comprehensive Vegetation/Fuels Management Program
• Black History Month Proclamation
• Toyon Trail Closure Saturday, February 11
• Residential Security Checklist
• Founders’ Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Town of Portola Valley
• Workshop - Choose Your Climate Future
• Sustainable San Mateo County Announces 2023 Award Recipients
• Wildfire Preparedness Committee Tip - Earthquake Preparedness Resources
• Conservation Committee Tip of the Month - Planting Guide
• Sustainability Committee Tips - Home Energy and Water Use
• Volunteer Opportunity – Meal Preparation for Half Moon Bay Shelter
• Upcoming Events

Town Council Summary Feb 8, 2023

A summary of the most recent meeting held on February 8 is now available. The Town Council discussed a Colleagues Memo entitled “Proposed Process for Implementation of Sunrise Provision of Housing Element” and held the first of two study sessions on the FY 2023-24 Council Priorities.

Updated Housing Element Adoption Timeline

The Town Council reviewed, in last night’s meeting, the current timeline to adopt the Housing Element by the end of March.

Upcoming meetings Include:

• Planning Commission - February 15 (mitigated negative declaration response to comments and Fire Marshal comments)
• Planning Commission - March 1 (formal recommendation to Town Council)
• Town Council - March 22 (review full scope of work)
• Town Council - March 29 (continued discussion of all Housing Element-related items).

The Council has made available March 15 for a meeting as necessary.

Woodside Fire Protection District Considering Two New Ordinances on Designating a WUI and Creating a Comprehensive Vegetation/Fuels Management Program

The Woodside Fire Protection District (WFPD), is considering two ordinances that will 1) designate a wildland-urban interface in certain parts of the District, and 2) a comprehensive hazardous vegetation and fuels management program that will affect all parcels within the District.

The WFPD Board will review the two ordinances at their next meeting on February 28 (this will be the first of two meetings to adopt the ordinances). You may find posted agendas for WFPD here: https://www.woodsidefire.org/board/meeting-agendas

Black History Month Proclamation

On February 9th the Town Council recognized February 2023 as Black History Month. You can read the proclamation here.

Toyon Trail Closure Saturday, February 11

The Toyon Trail Volunteer Project will be doing work Saturday, February 11 –Toyon Trail will be closed from Alpine Rd up to the Coalmine Trail junction for the entire day to work on the trail tread and some of the retaining walls. Anyone coming down Toyon will have to exit at the Coalmine Trail junction ad then continue down Old Spanish to get to Alpine Rd.

Residential Security Checklist

No house is absolutely burglar-proof if professional burglars are set on breaking in. However, there is much you can do to make your home a less inviting and interesting target for property crime, as burglars would be the first to admit that you can discourage burglars if you tighten up your home security. You can begin this process by identifying weak areas and fixing them.

This checklist will assist you in systematically surveying your home to make the necessary changes to reduce the potential for such a crime. Complying with these suggestions will not guarantee that your home will never be burglarized, but it will certainly make your home a less desirable target

Founders’ Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Town of Portola Valley

The Town of Portola Valley has established a lifetime contributions award that recognizes the cumulative civic engagement and leadership of longstanding volunteers in the Town of Portola Valley.

Nominees must have twenty years or more of distinguished service to the Town including on a committee, a commission and/or on the Town Council, as well as within other Town working groups, or within other Portola Valley local organizations (i.e. Portola Valley School District, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space, Friends of the Library, The Sequoias, etc.).

Workshop - Choose Your Climate Future

A hands-on workshop to discover how to recover a healthy climate

Thursday, February 23, 7 pm-9 pm, at the Portola Valley Town Center

Join the hands-on event. Refreshments Served!

Join us to play with En-ROADS, a powerful online simulator, to explore how we can ensure a livable, sustainable climate by the end of this century.

This workshop is fun, free and open to everyone with a curious mind! No prior background in climate change is needed. Just come and explore!

Co-developed with the MIT Sloan School, En-ROADS is an easy-to-use planning tool that has been used in workshops in over 190 countries with over 200,000 people, including Members of Congress, community leaders, and the general public. It is based on the latest science and is updated monthly to stay current.

You will have a chance to learn about the most popular solutions to the climate crisis AND to propose and test your own scenarios. This 2-hour session will be lively, as we learn together what works and what doesn’t, and you’ll also hear about possible ways to get involved to make a difference.

Bring your laptop or share with others. Because the simulation tool is online, it’s possible for participants to bring a laptop to the session and concurrently run their own what-if experiments. Feel free to bring your own fully-charged Mac or PC!

This workshop is sponsored by the Sustainability Committee of the Town of Portola Valley.

The workshop leaders will be: Steve Levin, PV resident and En-ROADS Climate Ambassador and Laura Iyer, Leader of the CCL En-ROADS Engagement Action Team and an En-ROADS Climate Ambassador

Sustainable San Mateo County Announces 2023 Award Recipients

Congratulations to Colin Chu of Portola Valley who will be honored at this event!

Sustainable San Mateo County (SSMC) will honor four local sustainability champions, Diane Bailey, Tom Kabat, Redwood High School and SEI, at its 24th Annual Awards Celebration on Thursday, March 30, for their contributions to sustainability in San Mateo County.

SSMC and the American Institute of Architects, San Mateo County Chapter, will present the Green Building Award to the Burlingame Community Center in Burlingame. They will award Honorable Mentions to the Atherton Library in Atherton and Gilead Sciences’ Wellbeing Center in Foster City.

The All-Electric Leadership Awards, sponsored by Peninsula Clean Energy, will also be presented during the event.

In keeping with the theme of the celebration, “A hopeful future for our youth,” SSMC will present a Sustainability Youth Commendation to Alex Wagonfeld of Hillsborough, who attends The Nueva School, and will recognize two other local students: Colin Chu of Portola Valley, who also attends Nueva, and Ethan Hua of San Mateo, a student at Aragon High School.

For the first time since 2018, the event will return to an in-person venue at the Bayview Dining Room at the College of San Mateo. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. and includes a hosted reception, dinner, silent and live auctions, and an awards recognition program.

Tickets are available at auctria.events/SSMCAwards2023. Individual tickets cost $175; a table of 10 costs $1,650. Sponsorships range from $500 to $10,000 and include benefits. Visit https://sustainablesanmateo.org/sponsorship-opportunities for details.

SSMC’s 4th Annual Virtual Auction will kick off on March 23 and conclude on April 2 at 5 p.m. All online bids will be silent.

Founded in 1992, Sustainable San Mateo County is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to a vision of a sustainable future for everyone in the county. For more information, visit https://sustainablesanmateo.org/awards2023, email event@sustainablesanmateo.org or call 650-918-1992.

Wildfire Preparedness Committee Tip - Earthquake Preparedness Resources

The Wildfire Preparedness Committee has created a series of tips to help the community prepare for wildfire season. You can see the current tip and download any past tips on the website.

Conservation Committee Tip of the Month

The Conservation Committee’s most recent tip is a planting guide for our local native plants. Late fall and early winter are the ideal time to be planting natives, especially after the epic rains we received in January. Read the whole tip here.

Sustainability Committee Tips - Home Energy and Water Use

The Sustainability Committee provides a series of tips to help plan your personal and household sustainability goals. Go to the Sustainability Tip page for current and past tips. This tip provides some easy ways you can use technology to understand your home energy and water use.

Volunteer Opportunity – Meal Preparation for Half Moon Bay Shelter

Christ Church in Portola Valley regularly provides meals on the weekends to Coast House, Life Moves homeless shelter in Half Moon Bay. It is the only coast-side shelter. They are always looking for people who want to chop vegetables, make salads, bake desserts, and more. The next meal they will deliver will be on Saturday, February 18. Volunteer opportunities can be from helping prepare food items on Friday or helping prepare and pack on Saturday. If you are interested in helping or learning more please reach out to Ruth Ann Wrucke at 650.851.8435 (the best time to reach her is in the mornings)