Arastradero Pathway Hearing Thursday Night

It was, to put it colloquially, "too, too."

Too much footbridge. Too much ugly retaining wall. Too much traffic already.

For one mile's worth of pathway, particularly one for free (courtesy of Stanford University), the Arastradero Pathway improvement bore a lot of scrutiny last year. Residents banded together and , and became engaged.

Now it's back for a public hearing Thursday night, after considerable tinkering through several meetings and workshops in the past year. The pathway running from Arastradero Road and Purissima to Baleri Ranch Road and Arastradero has been scaled back and changed, as detailed in the staff report:

• A footbridge over Matadero Creek was eliminated.
• A path along Matadero Creek proposed to be improved to Class II quality will remain a "native path."
• The number of trees to be removed were reduced from 13 to 11.
• A new 3-foot-to-10-foot retaining wall to be built on the south side of Arastrero Road will average 18 inches high, and get a stone facing. Plantings will be incorporated in the 30-foot section near Stirrup Way.
• A painted crosswalk at Page Mill and Arastradero roads, outfitted with flashing beacons has been changed to a painted crosswalk with in-pavement flashing lights.
• Directional signs for bicyclists at Arastradero and Purissima roads will be reviewed and considered.

On a separate front, increased attention to traffic enforcement has worked to address the concerns of traffic.

Residents still have concerns over possible landslides that could be triggered by construction of the retaining wall, due to the composition of the soil in the area, as raised in a letter from Edwina Cioffi

In other action, the council will also vote on changing its regular meeting times to 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m.; closed sessions would start at 5 p.m. It will discuss assigning an ad-hoc committee to look into maintenance of private roads, and discuss how to continue the town newsletter following the resignatio of its most recent editor.

The agenda and supporting documents can be found on the town website.