Editing Portola Valley, California (section)

== History ==
[[File:Retrat_Gaspar_de_Portolà_(Lleida).jpg|thumb|left|Portola Valley is named after [[Gaspar de Portolá]], first [[Governor of the Californias]] and leader of the [[Portolá expedition]].]]
Portola Valley was named for Spanish explorer [[Gaspar de Portolá]], who led the first party of Europeans to explore the [[San Francisco Peninsula]] in 1769.

The Native Americans already present were [[Ohlone]] and specifically the group (or groups) known as Olpen or Guemelento but these were later moved to [[Mission San Francisco de Asís|Mission Dolores]] and [[Mission Santa Clara de Asís]] which claimed the land and peoples.<ref name="ohlone">{{cite book|last1=Millikan|first1=Randally|last2=Shoup|first2=Laurence H.|last3=Ortiz|first3=Beverley R.|title=Ohlone/Costanoan Indians of the San Francisco Peninsula and their Neighbors, Yesterday and Today|date=June 2009|publisher=National Park Service|pages=293–294|url=http://www.muwekma.org/images/Ohlone_Costanoan_Indians_of_SF_Peninsula_NPS_2009.pdf}}</ref><ref name="bocek">{{cite journal|last1=Bocek|first1=Barbara|title=Subsistence, Settlement and Tribelet Territories on the Eastern San Francisco Peninsula|journal=Proceedings of the Society for California Arhchaeology|date=1992|volume=5|pages=269–297|url=https://scahome.org/publications/proceedings/Proceedings.05Bocek.pdf|access-date=April 8, 2018}}</ref> 
The area's written history dates back to 1833, when  a square league of land was given to Domingo Peralta and Máximo Martínez by Governor [[José Figueroa]] to form the [[Rancho Cañada del Corte de Madera]].<ref name="HistSpots">{{cite book|last1=Kyle|first1=Douglas E.|last2=Rensch|first2=Hero Eugene|last3=Rensch|first3=Ethel Grace|last4=Hoover|first4=Mildred Brooke|title=Historic Spots in California: Fifth Edition|date=2002|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=9780804778176|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0YMnDQAAQBAJ|access-date=March 24, 2018|language=en}}</ref> In those days it was used for lumbering and cattle grazing.

By the 1880s [[Andrew S. Hallidie]], a [[wire rope]] manufacturer, had built his country home of Eagle Home Farm in what is now Portola Valley.  He built a 7,341 foot long [[aerial tramway]] from his house to the top of Skyline in 1894 though it was removed after his death in 1900.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Clifford|first1=Jim|title=Cable car inventor built tram in Portola Valley|url=https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/cable-car-inventor-built-tram-in-portola-valley/article_114307c1-89f9-5a46-8776-65f24bc82b37.html|access-date=March 25, 2018|work=San Mateo Daily Journal|date=May 8, 2017|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Hallidie Tramway - Portola Valley, CA - Signs of History on Waymarking.com|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMGJP5_Hallidie_Tramway_Portola_Valley_CA|website=www.waymarking.com|access-date=March 25, 2018|language=en}}</ref>

In 1886 the name Portola-[[Joan Crespí|Crespi]] Valley was bestowed on the area from the then community of Crystal Springs (now under [[Crystal Springs Reservoir]] to the then community of [[Searsville, California|Searsville]] (in the area of the present day [[Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve]]); Crespi is for [[Juan Crespí]], a Franciscan friar with the Portolà expedition.

The town was  [[municipal corporation|incorporated]] in 1964.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.portolavalley.net/about-portola-valley/history-of-portola-valley|title=Portola Valley, CA : History of Portola Valley|website=www.portolavalley.net|language=en|access-date=March 16, 2017}}</ref> [[Bill Lane (publisher)|Bill Lane]], known as the publisher of ''[[Sunset (magazine)|Sunset]]'' magazine, was the first mayor.<ref name="HistSpots"/>

===Housing issues===
In recent years, due to the [[California housing shortage]], the state government has increased its pressure on local governments to allow construction of more housing, using a process called the [[Regional Housing Needs Assessment]].{{ r | SFS_2024-11-14 | LAT_2024-12-20 }} In late 2021, this assessment declared that Portola Valley needed to allow for the construction of 253 new housing units over the next 8 years.{{ r | SFS_2024-11-14 | LAT_2024-12-20 | SJMN_2024-04-02 }} The state requires localities to submit plans to satisfy this requirement detailing how much housing and what types (low-income, luxury housing) the locality has planned for, and to make zoning changes to allow those types of housing to be built.{{ r | SJMN_2024-04-02 }} Previously, Portola Valley's [[exclusionary zoning]] has not allowed any multifamily housing, resulting in a town that is much whiter and wealthier than average for the area, (75% white vs. 35% in San Mateo county as a whole), with the median household income at $250,000 and the average home costing $3.8 million.{{ r | SJMN_2024-04-02 }}

In 2023, during the process of generating the town's housing plan (called a "housing element"), [[NIMBY]] homeowners lashed out at the town's workers and Councilmembers, resulting in over two thirds of the town's employees quitting and several of the Councilmembers being replaced.<ref name=SFS_2024-11-14>{{ cite news | title=How Portola Valley nearly destroyed itself over 253 new homes | url=https://sfstandard.com/2024/11/14/portola-valley-and-the-perils-of-housing-mandates/ | last=Nguyen | first=Kevin V. | work=[[The San Francisco Standard]] | date=14 November 2024 | language=en | quote=The escalating costs are so dire that when Portola Valley’s finance committee met last month, it considered the possibility of dissolving the town government altogether and folding it into that of the county. }}</ref>{{ r | LAT_2024-12-20 }} Additionally, according to the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', about a dozen residents threatened the mayor that if housing plans were not to their liking, they would sue the town in order to force the town to incur such large litigation costs that it would go bankrupt.{{ r | LAT_2024-12-20 }}

In March 2024, the [[California Department of Housing and Community Development]] decertified Portola Valley's housing plan because the town had failed to re-zone to allow for the new housing.<ref name=SJMN_2024-04-02 >{{ cite news | url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/02/portola-valley-housing-element-decertified-california/ | title=A wealthy Peninsula town is dragging its feet on building housing, state says. Now, it faces consequences. | last=Talerico | first=Kate | newspaper=[[San Jose Mercury News]] | date=April 2, 2024 | quote=Historically, Portola Valley hasn’t allowed multifamily housing complexes to be built in town. As a result, the community is a homogenous enclave: 75% white (compared to 35% in San Mateo county overall), with a median household income of $250,000 and an average home value of $3.8 million. As of 2020, 81% of the town’s housing stock was made up of single-family homes, many on lots of an acre or larger.}}</ref> By December 2024, fiscal issues arising from the higher costs of using consultants to do the jobs of employees who quit, the costs of lawsuits fighting residents who oppose new housing, and an expected 60% increase in costs for the policing contract with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, led some to consider dissolving Portola Valley and merging it with the county or another nearby city, [[Woodside, California|Woodside]].{{ r | SFS_2024-11-14 }}<ref name=LAT_2024-12-20 >{{ cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2024-12-20/how-fighting-affordable-housing-nearly-bankrupted-one-of-the-wealthiest-towns-in-america | title=How fighting affordable housing nearly bankrupted one of America's richest towns | last=Dillon | first=Liam | newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] | date=2024-12-20 | quote=On a Sunday afternoon a few years ago, about a dozen neighbors held a meeting with Craig Hughes, who was then the mayor of Portola Valley. The backyard gathering in the small, wealthy Silicon Valley enclave was civil, Hughes said, but his constituents left an unmistakable message. If Hughes and other town leaders produced a state-mandated affordable housing plan that wasn’t to the residents’ liking, they should expect a battery of litigation that could lead to Portola Valley’s bankruptcy.}}</ref>