"The Hawthorns Area offers picturesque views of rolling oak grasslands, the San Francisco Bay, and the Santa Cruz Mountains." That sentence comes from the vision statement the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District board approved on March 23, 2022. Anyone who drives Alpine Road past Roberts Market knows the property only from the road side, as a fenced frontage and a stand of trees. The 79 acres sit between Alpine Road and Los Trancos Road near the Portola Road intersection. They have been closed to the public since Midpen took possession in 2011.
Planning has gone on for five years and Midpen counts more than 40 public meetings and events. Most of the trail questions are now answered. The questions still open sit at the edge of the property, along a few hundred feet of Alpine Road where cars would turn in. That is where the Town of Portola Valley put its attention this summer.
How a gift became a planning project
Frederick N. Woods III died in April 2008 and left the Hawthorns estate and an endowment to Midpen. In April 2005 he had already granted a conservation easement to the Peninsula Open Space Trust, or POST, to permanently protect the land's natural, historic, and scenic values. That easement still shapes every decision. It allows public access trails and "a limited staging area," which is planning language for a trailhead parking lot. It prohibits new roads, utilities, and habitable buildings beyond what was already on the site.
Voters put the opening on the to-do list in 2014. Measure AA, Midpen's 30-year general obligation bond, includes a project portfolio that commits to "open the Hawthorns Area" and build trails connecting to Portola Valley and Palo Alto trails.
The trail plan is the settled part
The draft Area Plan would open about 66 acres to on-trail use. The roughly 13-acre Historic Complex would stay closed until it gets its own site-specific plan. The trail system is modest. It calls for about 1.5 miles of new internal trail, made up of a loop, spurs out to viewpoints, and a connection to the Town's Alpine Trail.
The proposed rules for each trail are more generous than many residents might expect:
- Internal loop, viewpoint spurs, and Alpine Trail connection: hikers, leashed dogs, bicycles, and equestrians. Bicycle use on the Alpine Trail itself needs Town approval.
- Trail 18: hiking only.
- A possible future link toward Sweet Springs: hiking only, and studied only after the preserve opens and use is monitored.
Horse-trailer parking is not proposed, because of space constraints, even though most of the trails are designed for equestrian use.
Trail 18 came out of the most contested trail debate. In March 2025 the Midpen board accepted the Public Access Working Group's recommendations with changes. Trail 18 replaced proposed segments 16 and 17, and the Sweet Springs connection moved to a later study. Portola Valley Ranch homeowners had raised viewshed, privacy, and trespass concerns about the Sweet Springs Trail. The working group also supported future regional links to the Los Trancos Trail and toward Arastradero and Foothills. For now those are aspirations, and the Alpine Trail is the only local connection in the plan.
Once the trail map was settled, attention moved to the road.
Two driveways, one frontage
Midpen looked for ways to avoid building a lot at all. It asked Roberts Market, Alpine Hills Tennis and Swimming Club, and Corte Madera School about sharing their parking. None of them took up the proposal. It also studied Los Trancos Road, where the two existing driveways sit on curves without enough sight distance for drivers turning out in either direction.
That leaves Alpine Road. On May 6, 2026, the Midpen board narrowed the choices to two options for environmental review. Both would put a lot of 25 to 50 spaces just off Alpine Road.
| Option 9 | Option 10 | |
|---|---|---|
| Driveway | Existing driveway across from Roberts Market | New driveway directly across from Portola Road |
| Intersection change | Uses the current curb cut | Creates a new four-way stop at Alpine and Portola |
| Alpine Trail crossings | One driveway crossing | Two crossings |
| Status | Retained for review | Retained for review |
Midpen's 2024 transportation study found adequate sight distance in both directions at all four Alpine Road access points it reviewed. Under either option, the Alpine Road Trail would be rerouted so it crosses the driveway farther into the site, away from cars waiting to pull out. Midpen says the traffic data will be refreshed during environmental review.
The lot would open with about 25 spaces and could grow to a maximum of 50 if demand warrants. The 50-space cap was a compromise number. Midpen's transportation study estimated demand at between 25 and 68 spaces, and the district picked 50 as a midpoint. It also proposes screening the lot with berms and retained trees. Midpen's FAQ also mentions shuttles from Town parking facilities and real-time parking data as possible tools if demand runs higher.
Gravel or concrete, and who gets to say
Even the surface of the lot is disputed. Midpen reads the easement as allowing the staging area around the perimeter of the property's Improved Portion and proposes permeable concrete. In the Town Council packet for August 26, 2026, Town staff read the same easement as limiting the surface to gravel. Staff said the lot might have to move, and noted that the Town cannot enforce the easement directly unless POST assigns it that right. POST is the party with legal authority to interpret the easement, and Midpen says POST has no plans to change it.
At that August 26 special meeting, the Council weighed four possible roles for the Town. It could take part in the environmental review, update its open-space and zoning rules, negotiate an agreement with Midpen, or ask POST to enforce the easement. None of them has a budget yet. Staff also suggested studying parking at Windy Hill and the Hawthorns together, which could mean adding spaces at Windy Hill and fewer at the Hawthorns.
On September 9 the Council appointed Vice Mayor Mary Hufty and Councilmember Judith Hasko to a joint committee with the Portola Valley School District board. The committee will look at public safety along the Town's Alpine Road Trail where it runs past the Hawthorns frontage. It will hold open meetings under the Brown Act, and the PVSD trustees were scheduled to name their members on September 17. So a trail of about 1.5 miles now has a council subcommittee, a school-board partnership, and an easement holder involved in decisions about one parking lot.
What changes this fall
Hikers won't see anything new this fall. Construction crews will. Midpen deferred the Hawthorns Historic Complex project on December 10, 2025, until the Area Plan is adopted and first implemented. Since then it has done stabilization work there, including debris removal, foundation and framing bracing, and drainage improvements. Starting in fall 2026, crews are scheduled to reroof the main house, the cottage, and the garage. These late-19th-century buildings are still waiting for a long-term use. Earlier attempts to find a partner for them failed over cost, uses that didn't fit, and zoning.
The schedule, as the current documents describe it:
- Phase 4, Area Plan and Environmental Review, 2025 to 2028. Underway now.
- Environmental review completion. The Town's August packet says Midpen expects to finish sometime in 2027, then finalize designs and seek Town permits.
- Public comment. The draft environmental document will get a 45-day public review period and a public hearing. No release date has been announced.
- Phase 5, Implementation, 2028 and beyond. This covers final design, permitting, bidding, and construction.
When the trails do open, the Hawthorns will keep standard Midpen hours, from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.
Where the walking is this fall
The nearest open preserve is Windy Hill, which has no reported trail closures. Midpen has three docent-led outings there this fall, all starting from the Portola Road side.
- Autumnal Beauty Loop Hike, Sunday, October 25, 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. A 7.5-mile loop that meets at the Lower Windy Hill Parking Area on Portola Road.
- National "Take a Hike Day" Dog Hike, Tuesday, November 17, 12:30 to 5 p.m. Reservations open November 3 at noon and close November 16 at 2 p.m.
- Fall & Winter Berries, Saturday, November 21, noon to 2 p.m. A two-mile family outing that also meets at the Lower Windy Hill Parking Area.
At Coal Creek Preserve, the Meadow Trail is closed through early April 2027 for drainage and trail-tread work. Midpen is letting the new trail bed settle over the rainy season before foot and bike traffic return. The preserve's other trails remain open. Midpen notes that closures can change day to day, so check the trail conditions page before heading out.
When the Hawthorns parking lot does get built, it will add a new trailhead on Alpine Road across from the Roberts Market area. If you would like a quiet conversation about how open-space decisions like this one bear on a specific property in Portola Valley, Stephanie Elkins is glad to talk it through. Request a Private Valuation whenever it suits you.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
