By Elizabeth Cloutman

Los Altos Hills

A Los Altos Hills couple requesting removal of an off-road pathways easement on their Taaffe Road property moved a step closer to their goal last Thursday, when the planning commission voted for a second time to amend the town’s pathways plan so the easement could be vacated.

The city council returned Greg and Sandra Carse’s request to the planning commission March 21 at the recommendation of the town’s attorney when a lawyer representing a group of residents said town staff’s findings supporting the easement removal violated state law. Town staff amended findings to the planning commission’s resolution and prepared an environmental impact report.

“I see no new information that would change my mind,” said Planning Commissioner Charles Wong after listening to residents on both sides of the issue, as well as City Planning Director Carl Cahill and Don Segal, representing the city attorney’s office. Commissioners Carl Cottrell, Eric Clow and Janet Vitu concurred with Wong. Commissioner Carol Gottlieb was the dissenting vote.

The planning commission arrived at its decision despite the pathway committee’s January recommendation that commissioners defer their vote until a revised Master Path Plan map is adopted. Mayor Toni Casey said she hopes the revised map will be ready for adoption by the council in May.

At the request of town staff, the pathways committee has scheduled a special meeting Thursday to make its recommendation on abandoning the Carses’ off-road pathway easement. The pathways committee has also slated the election of new committee co-chairpersons. Pathways committee member DuBose Montgomery requested the election be placed on the agenda. Current co-chairwoman Nancy Ewald said, “I’m concerned they’re considering this election before committee’s recommendation on the Master Path Plan map revision has been completed.” Ewald and Co-chairwoman Ginger Summit have said in the past they are opposed to making off-road pathway easements voluntary.

Town staff noted several findings in favor of vacating the Carse easement. The resolution stated the easement would not provide a critical link in the pathways system and is, in fact, redundant, duplicating the existing Taaffe roadside pathway.

The interiors of adjacent homes are visible from the easement and this is not consistent with the town’s Pathway Element Implementation Action 8, the resolution noted.

The roadside path and nearby paths provide circulation and recreation without intruding on residents’ privacy and security.

Cahill told planning commissioners that the deputy county fire marshal had told him the easement was not necessary or feasible for emergency access and evacuation because the area’s steep terrain and highly flammable vegetation might endanger residents using the path as an escape route.

Cahill said the Initial Study, completed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act of 1970, and the proposed Negative Declaration indicated that abandoning the Carse easement would have no significant impact on the environment.

Resident Les Earnest wrote a letter to the planning commission in which he noted abandoning the Carse easement would have the effect of cutting off the head of the Deer Creek Trail, a trail he said that was planned to connect two important recreational areas, the Byrne Preserve and the Artemas Ginzton Path.

Resident Dot Schreiner told commissioners she thought the proposed Negative Declaration failed to provide answers to any of the questions brought up at public hearings, as required by state law.

Schreiner, a former longtime planning commissioner, is a member of the Committee for the Preservation of Los Altos Hills, the group of residents that engaged San Francisco attorney Rachel Hooper to point out what the group believed were inadequacies in town staff’s March 21 report to the city council.

“There are only 17 miles of existing off-road paths,” she added. “Seventeen miles in this town is not very much. That puts the off-road picture into perspective.”