There has been a lot of activity along El Camino with proposals for new development, changing uses and renovated storefronts. The most prominent projects are:

Blockbuster Video: Blockbuster is working with Foodini's on plans to renovate the former All American Market. Blockbuster would occupy the portion of the building closest to Los Robles and Foodini's would take the remaining 5,000 s.f. Foodini's is operated by Chevron and features prepared food items for customers to take home and eat.

You may remember that the original plans submitted to the City by Blockbuster were rejected by the Architectural Review Board. The new plans were recently reviewed by BPA and the ARB. While the plans were an improvement, there were still recommendations to reduce the height and amount of signage and make other revisions to make the project more pedestrian friendly and appropriate for our neighborhood. The revised plans will be resubmitted for review by both ARB and BPA.

Goodwill Trailer Site (vacant lot at 3606 El Camino between Kendall and Matadero): Jim Baer's proposal for building 12 studio apartments and a 40-unit, extended-stay hotel was scheduled for a preliminary ARB hearing in August. He postponed the hearing while he works out technical issues regarding the underground parking garage meeting flood plain requirements and neighborhood concerns about the appropriateness of a hotel use on the site.

The plans would be submitted to the City for a Planned Community permit because the current zoning for the site does not accommodate the proposed uses. This process allows BPA and community members to express their concerns about the project during the planning stages. The Commercial Neighborhood zone allows retail uses that serve the neighborhood (such as a bakery, coffee shop, or market). Changing the allowed use to a regional-serving hotel does not fit in with the desires of the community expressed in the survey this year.

Classic Communities on the Cameo Club Site: City Council approved the development of 26 for-sale townhouses and construction should start in September.

Kids Park (3825 El Camino): Plans were reviewed last month by ARB to renovate the former NCA Computer store into a drop-in day care center. The 5,500 s.f. building will be repainted, a new awning and signage installed, and a handicapped ramp and revised entry constructed. The ARB required some modifications to the plans and proposed colors, which will need to be resubmitted for review before approval.

Orthopedic Facility (3401 El Camino): This project received ARB approval and is currently under construction.

Quality Inn: The plans for renovation were approved by ARB and construction will start soon.

Goebel Lane Condos: The tentative map for 13 condos was approved by Planning Commission and is scheduled for a City Council hearing in September. Design was approved by the ARB and construction is scheduled to start in September. At the request of community members, they included a walkway for Cameo Club residents to walk to Vista Lane.

This is to announce to you the sale of 925 Roble Ridge -- the home of the Cornelius Bol family! It has been my privilege (for the past 2-1/4 years) to assist in the search for a buyer who wished to preserve the donkey pasture, and who had the knowledge and expertise to comply with the planning department's mandates regarding historical and lot line issues.

Our buyer grew up in Barron Park, and is looking forward to making new memories with his young son at 925 Roble Ridge!

For starters, Friday, August 28th, 15 members of the Bol family, four of the buyer's family, members of the BPA Board, Roble Ridge neighbors, Perry, Miner and their "handlers" gathered together to celebrate the passage of time.

It was a tender occasion, and one that the attendees look forward to repeating in the near future!

Yours Sincerely,
Gwen Luce

IMMEDIATELY call 911. Describe the situation, so that the dispatcher can order the appropriate response.

If the incident is not in progress but you see evidence of damage from an earlier time, report this by calling the non-emergency number, 329-2184, and tell what you have seen.

Remember to remove all dry growth around your residences to reduce the chances of fire. Also, move any wood stacked around the house. Trim tree branches that are close to chimney flues.

Street trees are the trees that grow in the easement between our houses and the pavement. The city will provide saplings and some soil preparation help free of charge to residents who agree to care for the young trees. Volunteers will help with the planting on Saturday, November 14.

In a departure from the more structured designs in other parts of the city, city arborist David Sandage is offering Barron Park residents a choice of five species, four of them native:

• coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) -- an evergreen native prolific throughout Palo Alto, the coast live oak grows relatively quickly up to 70 feet with an equal spread. Because of the dense foliage that remains throughout the winter, live oaks are recommended only on the south side of the street, so that the winter shade doesn't block sunlight to the house
• valley oak (Quercus lobata) -- a deciduous native that can grow to a height of 70 feet or more, the valley oak provided one of the staples of the native Californian diet. Like the live and black oaks, the valley oak cannot tolerate summer water once established and is therefore recommended for properties with no grass or other plantings within ten feet of the street.
• black oak (Quercus kelloggii) -- a deciduous native similar to the red oak that grows in the eastern states, the black oak can reach heights of 60 to 80 feet with a 40-foot spread. This tree has deep roots, shapely leaves up to six inches long, and few pest, disease, or litter problems.
• big-leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) -- a deciduous, riparian native that will thrive next to an irrigated yard, the big-leaf maple will grow quickly to 30 or 50 feet, with a rounded, symmetrical canopy.
• London plane (Platanus acerifolia, also known as sycamore) -- a popular street tree throughout the world, the London plane was hybridized centuries ago to withstand the urban indignities of smog, dust, and automobile exhaust. The luxurious tunnel of foliage on Amaranta is the result of London planes planted several decades ago.

Beautification Committee members walked the west neighborhood in the spring, scouting out potential street-tree locations. Volunteer tree ambassadors then contacted residents whose yards sport promising tree sites. Residents must agree to water the saplings and keep the area free of weeds until the trees are established. If you haven't been contacted but you think your property could support a street tree, please call Sue Luttner immediately at 424-0824. We will support requests for trees throughout the neighborhood; we are soliciting tree sites only in the west for this planting.

If you're interested in helping with the planting in November, please call as well -- still 424-0824.

Special thanks to tree-spot spotters Carla Bliss, Amrette Butler, Alison Collin, Sabra Driscoll, Shirley Finfrock, Alison James, Joan Marx, Stephanie Sussman, Mardell Ward, and Maryanne Welton; and to tree ambassadors Terri Achelas, Billie Bennet, Amrette Butler Shirley Finfrock, Bryn Homsy, Alison James, Judy Schultz, Stephanie Sussman, Mardell Ward and Maryanne Welton.

In turn, the Committee and Board brought up some of the neighborhood concerns including quicker response to crime situations, crime prevention, traffic, a neighborhood emergency drill to follow up on the table top exercises, Neighborhood Watch, improved communication between the police and the neighborhood, improved warning systems with provisions to identify those individuals needing special attention, and graffiti.

The meeting lasted a little over an hour and all felt it was a good beginning.

The days are growing shorter; there is a bite in the air in the mornings; the kids have gone back to school. Yup, its Fall! Some of you have sent children off to college for the first time; others have sent grandchildren back to their parents after a week or two of unashamed spoiling. And others of us are not too affected by the changing of the seasons.

But all of us are settling back into the routines of our lives. Before your calendars become too filled, please save a little of your time for volunteering at our local schools -- for the "Early Literacy Program." This program is being introduced at both of our local schools. Juana Briones, and the new Barron Park school. Volunteers are needed to give one hour a week to go into the schools and help young readers on a one-to-one basis. I am told that it makes a tremendous difference to the children who need a little extra help to get over the hurdles of "learning-to-read."

Please, try to find that one hour for our kids. I know you have the skills needed -- and you are needed. I'll be so proud when I hear that some of you have offered your time and effort to ensure that our youngest scholars are all becoming literate.

For further information, call Louise at 326-5362, ext. 13. Or call the office at either school:

Juana Briones: 856-0877
Barron Park: 858-0608
It just occurred to me -- what a great way to get back in touch with that little child within us!!
Happy Reading --
Katie 493-8023

The Barron Park Association is represented on the Advisory Committee for the proposed new Public Safety Building for Palo Alto. This is to provide an up-to-date facility for the Police and Fire Departments. The consultants for the first phase have been selected. The next task is to investigate suitable sites for the new Public Safety Building throughout Palo Alto. The first public information meeting will be held in late October. More information on the exact date and location for this meeting will be provided by the Committee when final arrangements are made.

The city utilities department is putting together a pilot program to connect homes into the city's fiber-optic network. This will allow both local and global Internet access at speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (100 Mb/s) - 2000 times faster than a modem. Ken Poulton and Terry Andre are leading the effort to have Barron Park included in this pilot program.

The program was started by a few residents located near the Palo Alto Cultural Center who wanted to hook into the Palo Alto fiber ring, which is currently used only by businesses. They first created the Community Center Neighbors group which created a plan for a neighborhood network, and then got the city interested in running the program.

The idea is to create a city-wide local area network (LAN) similar to the in-building LANs used in most businesses and univerity campuses today. The network will be built with standard 10 and 100 Mb/s Ethernet electronics, but connected together with fiber-optic cables, which can go much farther than the copper wires usually used inside buildings. The city will operate the LAN and provide unlimited usage between computers within the city for a flat monthly fee, estimated at $10-35 per month for the 10 Mb/s service. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be invited to connect to the city LAN and provide access to the global Internet for an additional fee which is not known yet.

The reason to use fiber instead of cable or telephone wires (e.g., ISDN or ADSL) is twofold: fiber can provide speeds of 10 to 100 times more than the other technologies now, and can easily be upgraded to go faster in the future. It is the most direct way to take advantage of the speed increases and cost reductions continuously occuring for standard business network components.

The costs will be borne by the users, not the city. The installation cost is estimated at $1200 per home for the 10 Mb/s service. To keep costs down, the pilot program will serve only the areas with the highest densities of participating residents. The selection of those areas should occur in September.

Much more detail is available on the city's web page at http://www.cpau.com/fth/.

The deadline for signing up was August 31, but we would really like to hear from you if you are interested, whether you signed up or not. It may help us with the selection process to get additional signups, even if late.

PLEASE volunteer to help with the planting after the first rains. Also, we need seed-sower help! Remember what we plant and sow now, will give us beauty and joy in the years to come. Call Inge at 493-8146.

Maryanne Welton:
Maryanne and her family moved to Barron Park four years ago. Her husband, Kirk, and her sons, Brecon and Russell, live on Kendall Avenue with their border collie, Pippin. She loves Barron Park for its "virtual rurality" (as Ken Tani so aptly described it), proximity to the hills for hikes and picnics, and the strong sense of community. During her first summer here she organized a block party for the 600 block of Kendall. This annual Fourth of July event has now spread to include the streets surrounding that block. She is very involved in the schools (with her children among the first to enroll at the new Barron Park Elementary School) and other community activities. Maryanne is the vice president of an architecture firm and hopes to contribute her expertise in being able to read and interpret zoning codes and City regulations as Chair of the Zoning and Land Use Committee.

Ed Jones:
Hi my name is Ed Jones and I have lived in Palo Alto for 15 years, the last 10 being in my home in Barron Park. I have been married almost 10 years and have a 3 year old daughter. I also have a 10 year old Golden Retriever. I have been active over the last several years trying to improve the environment with a local group Bay Area Action. I have also tried to improve things along El Camino Real. I joining the emergency preparedness committee. Barron Park is a very nice neighborhood, a nice place to live and it is very easy to become part of. I hope to see you all become involved with Barron Park Association and work with you for our neighborhood.