After a meeting with the Peninsula Girl Scouts last week, the town of Woodside agreed to issue a permit to the group on Monday morning, June 26, allowing their buses into Huddart Park.

This means hundreds of children will not have to walk the last half-mile into the county park to get to Peninsula Day Camp, which begins on July 10. A law was passed in October 2022 that prohibits vehicles over 35 feet in length, like their day camp buses, from driving the last half-mile of Kings Mountain Road to the entrance of Huddart Park.

But the town's offer for this summer hasn't satisfied the Girl Scouts, who are seeking a longer-term solution that applies to all groups using the San Mateo County park located at 1100 Kings Mountain Road. The Peninsula Girl Scouts and their supporters still plan to attend a Town Council meeting on Tuesday evening, June 27, to protest the ordinance.

Representatives of the group, which has held the summer camp at Huddart since 1948, said they will also continue to collect signatures for three Change.org petitions urging a repeal of the town ordinance.

"Our camp's future transportation is still at stake and the ordinance impacts all the youth organizations in San Mateo County," said Monica Curtis, who directs the annual summer camp that draws hundreds of children from across the Peninsula, in a Monday email. "It is bigger than just our camp."

She objected to the town's reasoning for adopting the new law. Town staff cited the potential danger to other motorists and cyclists posed by large vehicles like buses traveling the narrow and winding roadway and crossing over into the oncoming lane while navigating sharp curves.

"The ordinance should be repealed because it was created with no objective data, survey or reports to support it and limits equity and access for youth in marginalized communities," Curtis said.

Woodside Mayor Chris Shaw has said that with the long-term closure of Highway 84 since early March, the town can't afford to have Kings Mountain Road blocked if a bus ends up going off the road or can't make turns, especially heading into fire season. The town's ordinance was not arbitrary, he said.

Girls Scouts representatives met with both the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and town staff to discuss a compromise on Wednesday, June 21. The town plans to have signs alerting other drivers that camp buses will be on Kings Mountain Road during the morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up hours, according to an email sent to the Girl Scouts on June 21 that summarized the meeting. The Sheriff's Department and the County Parks Department plans to assist in getting the Girl Scouts' buses into the park.

Town officials also offered to revisit the ordinance and the issue of future bus use later in the summer.

The Girl Scouts said it submitted a bus permit request on June 12 and was informed it was on "hold" because the electric buses it chartered for the day camp are 39.5 feet long. The town denied the permit on June 15. Historically, the Girl Scouts said they have used school buses that were even bigger, at 40 to 45 feet long.