My track record
In my three Woodside volunteer roles - president of the Moore Road management association, member of the Town’s Circulation Committee, and member of the Town Center Area Plan Committee, I’ve worked really hard to actually get stuff done for our community - both inside and outside of District 3.
Transforming Woodside Road into a beautiful parkway from 280 to Alameda de Las Pulgas, plus building a new safe pedestrian and bike pathway and improving Safe Routes to School for Woodside High School
I’ve been deeply involved in three projects that are set to dramatically improve the safety, appearance and recreational opportunities for Woodside Road between 280 and Alameda de Las Pulgas, both for local residents and for kids traveling to Woodside High School. I’m so excited that we have been able to obtain $3.3 million in public and private funding to support these transformational projects.
1) I worked with Town staff to initiate a project to repurpose an $800,000 federal grant that was likely to expire and to instead use it to build a safe pedestrian and bike pathway on the south side of Woodside Road from 280 to Woodside High, plus improved and safer bike lanes from 280 to Woodside High. The new pathway will be the start of a larger safe route to school project I hope to implement for kids attending Woodside High School. Another benefit of this new pathway is that it immediately opens up new recreational opportunities for the residents of Woodside Heights and Southern Woodside Hills, who for the first time since 280 was constructed will be able to walk safely to the Otis trail network, Kite Hill, the Joan Olsen Preserve, Barkley Fields and even to Woodside town center. Construction is expected to begin later in 2026.
2) I worked with Caltrans, the Circulation Committee, the Woodside Town Council and the Woodside Hills and Woodside Heights HOA leadership teams to successfully petition Caltrans to eliminate the 45 mph speed limit from Churchill to Moore Road on Woodside Road - the speed limit will now be a uniform 35 MPH. Residents in Woodside Hills and Woodside Heights have for decades lived in fear of making left turns onto Woodside Road - they liken turning left on Woodside Road to a game of frogger. There was a fatal accident here in 2012, and crashes are common. The reduced speed limit will also make it safer for kids riding bikes to Woodside High. Caltrans notified us that our petition has been approved in July 2026, and implementation of the new uniform 35 mph speed limit is expected this fall.
3) I worked with Mayor Dombkowski, Town Staff, the Town Council and the presidents of the Woodside Hills and Woodside Heights homeowners associations to create a project to transform Woodside Road East of 280 into a parkway, with beautiful trees, landscaping and plantings where today we have a mini-freeway with concrete and weeds. Earlier this year, Mayor Dombkowski successfully raised $2.5 million in private donations to fund this project. Construction is expected to begin in late 2026. This will result in a beautiful new gateway to Woodside and will send visual cues to drivers heading to and from 280 to slow down.
I also successfully petitioned the Town Council to extend the area under study for the Town Center Area Plan to include Woodside Road from Woodside town center to 280. This is important because it will allow us to include a vision for a new pedestrian and bike path / safe route to school for Woodside High School that goes all the way from Woodside town center to Woodside High in our new 25 year vision for Woodside - finally correcting the oversight that for decades there had been no way for kids who live in West Woodside and attend Woodside High School to safely walk or bike to school. We will need to find funding for this project, but I am confident we will be able to do so, and when we do, it will be transformational for our town.
Improving safety around Woodside Elementary School
We face unique safety challenges around Woodside Elementary School because of its frontage on Woodside Road, which is a state highway managed by Caltrans. I’ve worked very hard with Caltrans, Town Staff, the Circulation Committee and the Town Council on a wide range of projects designed to improve safety for kids in and around Woodside Elementary.
1) 15 mph is the safest speed limit to deploy in front of an elementary school, because a 15 mph school speed limit dramatically increases survival rates to 95% - 98% in vehicle-child collisions. But the conventional wisdom in Woodside had long been that it might be impossible to implement a 15 mph speed limit in front of Woodside Elementary because Woodside Road is a Caltrans managed state highway. I first voted Yes for this speed limit reduction in July 2024 (passed unanimously.) Then after many discussions, much research and advocacy over the following year, I was finally able to to get the Caltrans Bay Area head of safety to attend our circulation committee meeting in September 2025 - where we discussed this issue with him and learned that with a specific Caltrans process it might be possible to get the 15 mph speed limit approved. I worked with our Town Manager and the chair of the Circulation Committee to drive what Caltrans needed through our Town’s internal approval processes. I voted Yes again for the 15 mph speed limit to be sent to the town council in the circulation committee in October 2025 (it passed 6-1). I advocated for passage of the 15 mph speed limit with the Town Council in February 2026 (it passed unanimously), and I kept advocating to Caltrans execs to get it moved through their approval processes. To my great satisfaction, Caltrans notified us in July 2026 that they had approved the new “15 mph when children are present” speed limit in front of Woodside Elementary - and as of the first week of August 2026 this new safer speed limit went into effect. This was a big win for our town and our kids with a lot of hard work from many people.
2) I also proposed, advocated for, and voted in favor of many additional safety measures around Woodside Elementary School, many of which have already been implemented or are scheduled to be implemented.
Retain the safe route for kids biking and walking to Woodside Elementary through the open space behind the Canada Corners shopping center - there was a proposal to make the trail here equestrian-only and to force little kids going to school out onto very busy Canada and Woodside Roads.
Add radar “Your speed is” signs in front of Woodside Elementary.
Increased San Mateo Sheriff enforcement in front of Woodside Elementary.
Push button flashing stop signs at the intersection of Glenwood and Canada Road.
New crosswalks to improve safety for kids going to and from School at Kings Mountain Road, at Foxhollow / Miramontes across Woodside Road, at Mountain Home between Roberts Market and Town Hall, and at Whiskey Hill and Woodside Roads.
Traffic studies at Woodside Elementary looking at changes to circulation, parking, pick-up and drop-off, plus traffic calming measures that are compatible with horse trailers and emergency vehicle traffic on Woodside Road.
Saving cyclist and pedestrian lives at Four Corners by stopping racing on Skyline and reigning in weekend chaos
The situation with auto and motorcycle racing on Skyline Boulevard in the Four Corners area is intolerable. Numerous fatalities and countless collisions have occurred and continue to occur in these neighborhoods. Our cyclists in particular are in danger every day with frequent injuries and deaths. Exotic and exhaust-modified vehicles speeding through Woodside to reach Four Corners are loud, dangerous and disruptive on otherwise tranquil Woodside weekends.
I’ve had a chance to work with Caltrans, Town Staff, San Mateo Sheriffs and CHP on these problems. I firmly believe that we need a coordinated multi-agency approach to these issues, working together with our local elected officials.
What I’ve learned from law enforcement is that to improve safety around Skyline and Four Corners, we need to coordinate “the three E’s”:
Enforcement - Enforcement is the only thing that will make a difference in the immediate term - we need to work with CHP and San Mateo Sheriff on a plan to dramatically surge patrols onto Skyline and in the Four Corners area. Both of these agencies have access to emergency funding and surging capabilities internally and via their partner agencies. We also need to work to obtain grant funding and with our county and state elected officials to pay for consistent additional enforcement, especially on weekends, over the long term.
Engineering - This is Caltrans’ area - in 2025 we worked with Caltrans to allocate what they characterize as a “minor” $500,000 reconfiguration project for Woodside Road / Skyline intersection to try to make the Four Corners area safer, including calming traffic on Skyline for about a half mile on each side of Four Corners. I introduced the Caltrans head of maintenance to local residents and we were able to get roughly 95% of long-deferred safety maintenance issues in the area taken care in Fall 2025. Since late 2025, we have been working with Caltrans and Skyline residents and business owners to make sure the Caltrans proposed plans are acceptable and will provide the greatest benefit for the given budget. Construction is expected to be complete by the end of 2026. What is still needed is aggressive traffic calming for several miles in each direction on Skyline, plus a major reconfiguration of the Four Corners intersection with a comprehensive redo for pedestrian and bike safety - this will likely cost several million dollars and we need to find funding.
Education - We need to let the racing community know that they are not welcome in this area, and that racers and exhaust modders will face serious fines, loss of their vehicles, and will go to jail if they hurt someone on Skyline. The great news is that both CHP and our Sherriff are in favor of zero tolerance policing in this area and are now aggressively prosecuting both reckless drivers and the chase vehicles that film them for social media. CHP and Sheriff are also partnering with CARB to inspect vehicles at Four Corners for illegal modifications - which if found result in the immediate loss of registration.
I’m a strong believer that a coordinated approach between the Towns of Woodside and Portola Valley, County and State elected officials, CHP, Sheriff and Caltrans will be required to attack racing on Skyline. I would like to see an interagency task force established to coordinate the “three E’s” that doesn’t stop until the problem is solved. The current situation where our cyclists are getting injured or killed every few months is simply intolerable..
Traffic calming in Woodside Heights
Commute time cut-through traffic in Woodside Heights is dangerous and disruptive to this otherwise quiet community. Near misses are weekly experiences.
The history: In 2024, Caltrans re-surfaced and re-striped Woodside Road from 280 to 101. While doing this, they dramatically shortened the right hand turning lane from eastbound Woodside Road to southbound Alameda de Las Pulgas, which significantly reduced the capacity of the Woodside Road / Alameda intersection. The impact to Woodside Heights residents was immediate and severe - commuters travelling from 280 to Menlo Park now get stuck trying to turn right onto the Alameda, creating a lengthy backup on Woodside Road often nearly all the way to 280.
Google Maps, Apple Maps, Tesla and Waze all started redirecting commuters to cut through the normally quiet Woodside Heights neighborhood to avoid the new backups. Now, more than 1,000 vehicles every day speed through Woodside Heights, blow through stop signs and dramatically exceed the 20 mph speed limit. Near misses are frequent. Walking your dog is scary.
We’ve tasked the Sheriff to increase patrols in Woodside Heights, and they wrote more than 1,000 tickets, mostly for failure to stop, in Q4 2024 alone. We’ve conducted traffic studies to gather data that show how bad the problem really is. Watch the video nearby if you have a minute - it shows very dramatically what Woodside Heights residents now experience every commute day.
I have been working with the President of the Woodside Heights HOA to get traffic calming features installed on Eleanor, Northgate, Southgate and Stockbridge to help make the cut-through painful for speeding commuters. I worked with Town staff and the Town Council to obtain funding for traffic engineering studies and for the purchase and installation of traffic calming features on these streets. I’m hopeful that traffic calming measures will be implemented here before the end of 2026.
I’ve also been pestering Caltrans to fix the root cause of the problem, the broken intersection at Woodside Road and Alameda. While Caltrans knows they broke it (their internal studies tell them this) they so far have been unwilling to fix it. I plan to keep trying…
Restoring safe east / west pedestrian and equestrian connectivity under 280
When interstate 280 was built in the 1960’s, it cut Woodside in half.
Did you know there are two giant tunnels under 280 in Woodside? The first is about ½ mile south of Woodside Road and is used by equestrians to ride from Lawler Ranch Road and the Woodside Horse Park to Valley Road, Moore Road and prior to Covid to the Cal Water Bear Gulch Reservoir.
The second tunnel is about ¼ mile north of Woodside Road, and is used by hikers, runners and dog walkers to connect Lindenbrook Court, the Joan Olsen Nature preserve, the Otis trail network and Woodside Glenns with Barkley fields, Barkley park and Woodside Hills.
Up until about 25 years ago, there also used to be a pedestrian trail along Woodside Road underneath the 280 overpass from Moore road to Lindenbrook road.
All of these important east / west pedestrian and equestrian connections have been allowed to fall into disrepair over the years. I’ve been working hard with Caltrans and Town Staff to get them fixed up, restored and reopened.
I was successful in getting Caltrans to restore both of the pedestrian and equestrian tunnels under 280 - they repaired the trails, removed weeds and debris and painted over graffiti. Today they are safer and look better than they have in decades. See before and after pictures nearby.
I have been working with Caltrans and Town staff to restore safe pedestrian connectivity along Woodside road under 280. Once we finish this project, for the first time in 60 years, Woodside Heights, south Woodside Hills and Moore Road residents will be able to safely walk, run and hike to Kite Hill, the Joan Olsen preserve, Barkley fields and even onward to Woodside Town center. This will also be a big step toward our long term vision of a building safe route on Woodside Road from Woodside High School past Woodside Town center and Woodside Elementary School to Portola Road.
I have also been asking Cal Water leadership to reopen the Bear Gulch reservoir for public recreation. Bear Gulch is a beautiful 80 acre property with a 25 acre lake and all of it was closed to the public during Covid and did not reopen. Neighbors used to be able to walk here, and for decades this was a popular equestrian destination. This will be very hard to get done, but it is such an amazing potential recreational resource for Woodside residents it’s worth it to keep trying.
Wildfire readiness
Wildfire readiness is a top of mind issue for most Woodside residents.
I’ve done substantial work together with the presidents of the Woodside Hills and Woodside Heights homeowners associations to prepare our neighborhoods for Wildfire fuels reduction, home hardening, readiness, communication and evacuation.
We’ve established email, Whatsapp and text groups to communicate Wildfire status with our residents as it happens. During the recent wildfire near Canada college we were working together within minutes of the first alerts going out.
We’ve encouraged our neighbors to download the Watchduty app onto their phones, to subscribe to San Mateo County emergency alerts, and to take advantage of the Town of Woodside’s generous Defensible Space and Home Hardening Matching Fund Program and Woodside Fire’s excellent Chipping Program.
We’ve also worked on fuels reduction across these neighborhoods, including making sure brush and trees are trimmed back from the roads to Woodside Fire standards in case we ever need to evacuate during a wildfire emergency.
For the Moore Road community, I worked with Cal Water leadership to establish a secondary Wildfire evacuation route through the Bear Gulch Reservoir in case Moore Road residents are cut off from Woodside road by Wildfire.
I want to see comprehensive wildfire readiness, best practices and evacuation plans created, disseminated and practiced across Woodside, plus I would like the town to work with our local neighborhoods to create cell phone, email and/or Whatsapp groups for local emergency communications like we have in the Moore Road, Woodside Hills and Woodside Heights communities.
But wait, there’s more!
I’ve worked on dozens of projects large and small in district 3 and all over Woodside - from helping neighbors to get illegal dumping cleaned up quickly to wildfire readiness and evacuation planning to assisting local residents and businesses with permitting and much much more. I’ve found all of this to be very rewarding, which is a big part of why I’m running for district 3 Town Council.