Portola Valley is an incorporated

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

San Mateo County, California San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City, California, Redwood City is th ...

, United States. Located on the

San Francisco Peninsula The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Los Altos and Mountain View, ...

in the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

, Portola Valley is a small, wealthy community nestled on the eastern slopes of the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains ( Mutsun Ohlone: Mak-sah-re-jah, "Sharp Ridged Mountain of the Eagle" or "People of the Eagle Mountain") are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States, constituting a part of the Pacific Coast R ...

History

Portola Valley was named for Spanish explorer

Gaspar de Portolá Captain Gaspar de Portolá y Rovira (January 1, 1716 – October 10, 1786) was a Spanish Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the first List of governors of California before 1850, governor of the Californias from 1767 to 1770 ...

, who led the first party of Europeans to explore the

in 1769. The Native Americans already present were

Ohlone The Ohlone ( ), formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the l ...

and specifically the group (or groups) known as Olpen or Guemelento but these were later moved to Mission Dolores and

Mission Santa Clara de Asís Mission Santa Clara de Asís () is a Spanish mission in the city of Santa Clara, California. The mission, which was the eighth in California, was founded on January 12, 1777, by the Franciscans. Named for Saint Clare of Assisi, who founded th ...

which claimed the land and peoples. 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. In those days it was used for lumbering and cattle grazing. By the 1880s Andrew S. Hallidie, a

wire rope Steel wire rope (right hand lang lay) Wire rope is composed of as few as two solid, metal wires twisted into a helix that forms a composite ''rope'', in a pattern known as ''laid rope''. Larger diameter wire rope consists of multiple strands of ...

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 An aerial tramway, aerial tram, sky tram, cable car or aerial cablecar, aerial cableway, ropeway, téléphérique (French), or Seilbahn (German) is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary cables for support, with a third movin ...

from his house to the top of Skyline in 1894 though it was removed after his death in 1900. In 1886 the name Portola- 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 (in the area of the present day Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve); Crespi is for

Juan Crespí Juan Crespí, OFM (Catalan language, Catalan: ''Joan Crespí''; 1 March 1721 – 1 January 1782) was a Franciscan missionary and explorer of The Californias, Las Californias. Biography A native of Majorca, Crespí entered the Franciscan ord ...

, a Franciscan friar with the Portolà expedition. The town was incorporated in 1964. Bill Lane, known as the publisher of ''

Sunset Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its Earth's rotation, rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth, it ...

'' magazine, was the first mayor.

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. 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. 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. Previously, Portola Valley's

exclusionary zoning Exclusionary zoning is the use of zoning ordinances to exclude certain types of land uses from a given community, especially to regulate racial and economic diversity. In the United States, exclusionary zoning ordinances are standard in almost al ...

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. In 2023, during the process of generating the town's housing plan (called a "housing element"),

NIMBY NIMBY (, or nimby), an acronym for the phrase "Not In My Back Yard", is a characterization of opposition by residents to proposed real estate development and infrastructure developments in their local area, as well as support for strict land us ...

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. Additionally, according to the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', 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. 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. 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.

Geography

Portola Valley is located on the

on the eastern slope of the

. The town is west of Interstate 280 and the southwest boundary is along Skyline Boulevard which more or less is the ridge of the mountains. The Windy Hill Open Space Preserve is a large part of the town's southwest side and the north side of the town borders Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Woodside borders it to the northwest and

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

to the southeast The unincorporated subdivision of Ladera is adjacent to the northern boundary of the town. It is in a mostly wooded area, with some open fields. The

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental Fault (geology)#Strike-slip faults, right-lateral strike-slip transform fault that extends roughly through the U.S. state of California. It forms part of the tectonics, tectonic boundary between the Paci ...

bisects the town. Alpine Road and Portola Road are the two relatively main roads in the town and their intersection forms a small shopping nexus. Portola Valley can generally be divided into 7 subdivisions: Central Portola Valley, The Ranch, Corte Madera, Los Trancos/Vista Verde, Woodside Highlands, Westridge, and Blue Oaks. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the town has a total area of , 99.98% of it land and 0.02% of it water.

Attractions

Our Lady of the Wayside Church was built in 1912 for the local Catholic community and is a

California Historic Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meetin ...

and on the

U.S. National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of sites, buildings, structures, districts, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Portola Valley School is a one-room former school house built in 1909 and is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is now used for town council meetings. The Alpine Inn, also known as ''Casa de Tableta'', ''Rossotti's'' or ''Zott's'', is one of the oldest existing drinking establishments in California; it started around 1852 when Felix Buelna built it as a gambling house. The first two-network

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

transmission was between a specialized SRI van and

ARPANET The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first computer networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the tec ...

on August 27, 1976; the van was parked next to the Alpine Inn and wires were run to one of the picnic tables. In 2018, the inn was acquired by new owners, who closed it temporarily for remodeling. It was re-opened in August 2019.

Trails

Portola Valley is known for its expansive trail network both maintained by the town and also in the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve maintained by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. The trail network includes the 235 acre Coal Mine Ridge Nature Preserve which is private property, but, by agreement with the town is set aside as open space.

Demographics

As of 2020, the town has a much higher percentage of white people than the rest of San Mateo county, with 75% being white as opposed to 35% in San Mateo county overall. This is the result of its

ordinances, which prohibit multifamily dwellings anywhere in the town. As of 2020 the median income per household in Portola Valley was estimated at $235,469 and the per capita income was $142,778.

2020

The 2020 United States census reported that Portola Valley had a population of 4,456. The racial makeup was 3,585 (80.45%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 11 (0.25%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 4 (0.09%) Native American, 347 (7.79%) Asian, 57 (1.28%) other races, and 452 (10.14%) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 230 (5.16%). There were 1,915 housing units.

2010

The 2010 United States Census reported that Portola Valley had a population of 4,353. The population density was . The racial makeup of Portola Valley was 3,960 (91.0%) White, 12 (0.3%) African American, 5 (0.1%) Native American, 242 (5.6%) Asian, 1 (0.0%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 29 (0.7%) other races, and 104 (2.4%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 175 persons (4.0%). The Census reported that 4,309 people (99.0% of the population) lived in households, 9 (0.2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 35 (0.8%) were institutionalized. There were 1,746 households, out of which 518 (29.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 1,149 (65.8%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 70 (4.0%) had a female householder with no husband present, 35 (2.0%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 37 (2.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 21 (1.2%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 420 households (24.1%) were made up of individuals, and 290 (16.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47. There were 1,254

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(71.8% of all households); the average family size was 2.93. The population was spread out, with 1,001 people (23.0%) under the age of 18, 145 people (3.3%) aged 18 to 24, 538 people (12.4%) aged 25 to 44, 1,496 people (34.4%) aged 45 to 64, and 1,173 people (26.9%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 51.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.2 males. There were 1,895 housing units at an average density of , of which 1,392 (79.7%) were owner-occupied, and 354 (20.3%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.0%; the rental vacancy rate was 9.8%. 3,702 people (85.0% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 607 people (13.9%) lived in rental housing units.

2000

As of the census of 2000, there were 4,392 people, 1,772 households, and 1,269 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 1,772 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 4,210

, 29

, 22 Native American, 217 Asian, 5

, 54 from other races, and 64 from two or more races.

or Latino of any race were 149. There were 1,772 households, out of which 532 had children under the age of 18 living with them, 1,176 were married couples living together, 68 had a woman householder with no man present, and 431 were non-families. 339 of all households were made up of individuals, and 226 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 2.93. In the town the age distribution of the population shows 1021 persons under the age of 18, 90 from 20 to 24, 867 from 25 to 44, 1492 from 45 to 64, and 938 who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47.5 years old. For every 100 women there were 96.8 men. For every 100 women age 18 and over, there were 91.7 men. The median

income Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. F ...

for a household in Portola Valley, including earnings, is $244,771 and the median income for a family was $180,893. Men have a median income of over $200,000 versus $172,585 for women. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for Portola Valley is $152,128. About 18 families and 104 people were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 38 of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

Education

Woodside Priory School graduation procession 2008

The Portola Valley Elementary School District has two public primary schools: Ormondale School (with grades K–3) and Corte Madera School (grades 4–8). The public high school is Woodside High School, part of the Sequoia Union High School District and in the neighboring community of Woodside. Ormondale is named for the Ormondale ranch that had covered much of present-day Westridge, Oak Hills, and Ladera and was home to the famous English racehorse,

Ormonde Ormonde is a surname originated in Ireland (Ormonde) and Scotland (Ormond (surname), Ormond), but also occurring in England, United States, Portugal (mainly in Azores, as a variation of the scottish surname Drummond_(surname), Drummond) and Brazil. ...

, in his later years. Portola Valley is also home to two private schools: Woodside Priory School, an independent college-preparatory

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

day and boarding school serving grades 6–12, and Woodland School, an independent pre-K-8 grade school. The city is served by the Portola Valley Public Library of the San Mateo County Libraries, a member of the

Peninsula Library System The Peninsula Library System (PLS) is a consortium of public and community college libraries in San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County, California, United States, which serves the part of the San Francisco Bay Area known as "San Francisco ...

Government

In the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

, Portola Valley is in , and in . Federally, Portola Valley is in . Politically, Portola Valley leans slightly Democratic based on voting patterns for past presidential elections. Portola Valley is part of the Woodside Fire Protection District (which also covers Woodside, Ladera, Emerald Hills, Los Trancos, Skyline, and Viste Verde), which has one its three stations in the town. For law enforcement, Portola Valley contracts with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office. The Portola Valley Town Council made up of volunteers elected for four year terms governs the town. It appoints a town manager and other necessary officers and also elects a mayor.

Notable people

John Arrillaga John Arrillaga (April 3, 1937 – January 24, 2022) was an American billionaire real estate developer and Philanthropy, philanthropist who was one of the largest landowners in Silicon Valley. He was also a college basketball player when he atten ...

, billionaire businessman and real estate mogul. * Pat Burrell, retired baseball player. * Curtis Carlson, former CEO of

SRI International SRI International (SRI) is a nonprofit organization, nonprofit scientific research, scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California, United States. It was established in 1946 by trustees of Stanford Univer ...

* Roger Craig, retired pro football player. * Hewitt D. Crane (1927–2008), engineer and inventor who worked at SRI International *

Richard Crooks Richard Alexander Crooks (June 26, 1900 – September 29, 1972) was an American tenor and a leading singer at the New York Metropolitan Opera. Biography Crooks was born the second son of Alexander and Elizabeth Crooks on June 26, 1900, in Tren ...

(1900–1972), operatic tenor, longtime host of ''The Voice of Firestone'' on network radio who, in later years, sang with the choir at the local Presbyterian church, lived in Portola Valley for many years until his death. * John Donahoe, an American businessman who is the CEO of Nike; He has been the CEO of tech companies like

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

and

ServiceNow ServiceNow, Inc. is an American software company based in Santa Clara, California, that supplies a cloud computing platform for the creation and management of automated business workflows. It is used predominantly for the automation of informati ...

* Donna Dubinsky, CEO of Palm, Inc. * Taylor Eigsti, jazz pianist. From

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park ( ) is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, California, Eas ...

, but graduated

salutatorian Salutatorian is an academic title given in Armenia, the Philippines, Canada, Afghanistan and the United States to the second-highest-ranked graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. ...

of his high school class at Woodside Priory School. * Stanley Falkow (1934–2018) microbiologist, died in Portola Valley. * Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty, surgeon and inventor of the embolectomy catheter. * Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919–1991), singer best known for " Sixteen Tons". *

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman is the co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily ...

, co-founder of

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

. * Cuthbert Hurd (1911–1996), computer pioneer. who discovered a popular variety manzanita in his garden. * Vinod Khosla, a co-founder of

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

and current owner of

Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is a private American venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by entrepreneur Vinod Khosla in 2004. The firm works with early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile technology, artifici ...

. * Laurence W. "Bill" Lane Jr. (1919–2010), the first mayor and one of the founders of Portola Valley, also served as Ambassador to Japan and Australia for the US, and the publisher of

Sunset Magazine ''Sunset'' is a lifestyle magazine in the United States. ''Sunset'' focuses on homes, cooking, gardening, and travel, with a focus almost exclusively on the Western United States. The magazine is published six times per year by the Sunset Publis ...

. * Chong Moon Lee, founder of Diamond Multimedia. * Jacques Littlefield (1949–2009), president and founder of the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation, one of the largest collections of historical military vehicles in the world. *

Pete McCloskey Paul Norton "Pete" McCloskey Jr. (September 29, 1927 – May 8, 2024) was an American politician who represented San Mateo County, California, as a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983. Born in Loma Linda, Californi ...

, former member of Congress and co-chair of

Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally through earthday.org (formerly Earth Day Network) includin ...

. He was also the Town of Portola Valley's first city attorney. * Maverick McNealy, professional golfer, former World No. 1 ranked amateur golfer *

Scott McNealy Scott McNealy (born November 13, 1954) is an American businessman. He is most famous for co-founding the computer technology company Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy, and Andy Bechtolsheim. In 2004, while still at Sun ...

, co-founder of Sun Microsystems * Kent Mitchell, Olympic rowing champion, former mayor of Portola Valley * Ed Oates, a co-founder of

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...

; currently on the board of the San Francisco Zoological Society, and the San Jose State University Tower Foundation.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Populated places in San Mateo County, California Incorporated cities and towns in California Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area