Lois Crozier Hogle preserves her estate as conservation easement
By Lauren McSherry, Town Crier Staff Writer
Lois Crozier Hogle, a pioneer in the Peninsula’s environmental movement, continues to find new ways to preserve open space. The 90-year-old activist has proposed setting aside her 11-acre property, Oak Meadow, in Los Altos Hills as a conservation easement to be preserved in perpetuity.
She is the first person to donate property to the city in the form of a conservation easement. Her decision sets a precedent in Los Altos Hills, where high property values are leading to more subdivisions and fewer parcels of undeveloped land.
Members of the open space committee, involved in creating the conservation easement designation, hope that more residents will follow her example. The committee has been collaborating with officials from Woodside, which has processed conservation easements for several years.
“If we can bring this to fruition, this is really a feather in our cap,” said Roger Spreen, committee chairman.
Hogle, who has resided at Oak Meadow for 44 years, is the founder of the Committee for Green Foothills and has devoted her life to preserving open space.
As a conservation easement, the property could later be sold, but not subdivided.
Hogle’s historic California-style home, designed by brothers David and Birge Clark, Palo Alto architects who built more than 450 homes locally, may never be razed, though it could be modified.
Another historic feature of the estate is a Japanese teahouse with rice-paper doors designed by architect Morgan Stedman. His wife, Kathryn, designed the nearby swimming pool and surrounding landscaping.
“When I first moved to Palo Alto in 1959, I fell in love with the foothills and felt that they should not be developed,” Hogle said. “I’m interested in retaining open space in the town - to preserve the house and to preserve the beautiful area.”
At their Dec. 2 meeting, the city council approved funding to survey the property.
They paid tribute to Crozier Hogle and gave her a standing ovation.
