By Lauren McSherry

Before the ink had time to dry on the final paperwork, some Los Altos Hills residents voiced opposition to Pinewood School’s purchase of the former Winbigler property.

At the city council meeting July 1 residents expressed concern about having facilities for grades seven through 12 built on the seven-acre property. Thirty residents attended a private meeting with Pinewood School officials June 7. Several of them attended and spoke at the city council meeting.

“We are unalterably opposed to the construction of a school on the site,” said John Sullivan, a Hills resident who attended the June 7 meeting. “Another long, bitter fight … will create a permanent reservoir of animosity for Pinewood School.”

Scott Riches, president of Pinewood School, who was present at the council meeting for a separate agenda item, took to the podium to defend the school. “We have not even formally submitted paperwork,” he said. “… The neighborhood meeting was out of courtesy and sensitivity. … I think a lot of neighbors are jumping the gun.”

Residents said the school would create a traffic “nightmare” along Fremont Road’s S-curve and that Los Altos Hills residents already have one school campus in their back yard (Bullis-Purissima Elementary School) and don’t need another. They also cited noise from construction and after-school activities as well as the visible impact of a large building and its “plastic soccer fields” on the neighborhood. Several residents said the school would detract from Los Altos Hills’ unique residential and rural character.

“We need public schools, not private schools,” said Kathy Evans, a member of the Public Education Committee and a Bullis Charter School proponent.

Carl Moyer, a Campo Vista Lane resident, said, “There is no valid reason to subject Los Altos Hills residents to this development.”

In response to the complaint that only residents within 500 feet of the Winbigler property will receive notice about public hearings concerning the site, Mayor Mike O’Malley said, “We may want to increase that, given the interest it has already generated.”

O’Malley also said the property has been neglected for some time and “staff has the power to move things along.”

Resident Joan Jenson requested that before Pinewood’s plans for the Winbigler property go before the planning commission, the council make sure “the planning commissioners are unbiased members and have not profited from this property.”

Jenson may have been referring to Planning Commissioner Bill Kerns, who sold his sewer connection rights to Gordon Campbell and Maria Ligeti before they sold the Winbigler property to Pinewood School.