Woodsider homeowners respond in survey of town's building-review process

My "beliefs" have lingered for 20+ years or more as I have participated in the Woodside building process both as property owner expanding our family home and now considering very small in-law/grannie abode. Both have been inordinately expensive and difficult (even on large land parcels) compared to other familiar areas of California with comparable rural density and geo/eco-risk (e.g. Sonoma, Santa Barbara, Marin). We truly have created an expensive nightmare ( in time, money, effort) where our adult children cannot hope to return and live here. Sad. Very sad.

"For example, question 16, in the staff feedback section, asked whether staff had been fair and reasonable in interpreting the meaning of gray areas in ordinances and guidelines. Of 44 responses, 19 were agreed that staff were fair and reasonable while 14 disagreed. Seven were neutral and four said the question was not relevant.

In the private sector, if in response to a survey the tally was 19-14 in happy-unhappy with their customer service response, the CEO would fire everyone on that staff. 57% of your "customers" say they are happy? That's success???


Question 21 asked whether planning review processes reflected a reasonable balance between preserving Woodside's rural character, the primary mission of project review, and a landowner's property rights. Of 40 responses, 20 expressed negative opinions compared to 17 that were positive.

A 20-17 NEGATIVE vote regarding the Town's efforts to "preserve rural character." The Town Council doesn't see this response as problematic?


Interacting with the Architectural and Site Review Board, two favorable opinions and eight unfavorable.

The opinions are 4 to 1 citing a negative experience with the ASRB.


These numbers are abominable! We don't need another survey, the Town Council needs to wake up and do something.

It's long been known to those of us in the building and design business that Woodside's planning process is terribly broken. I have recommended to numerous people that have consulted me regarding building on property they were considering in Woodside that they NOT buy the property. Unless they were willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on design and the plan review process, not to mention YEARS trying to get approval.

IF they were able to get approval for what they really wanted to build on their own property. Especially with the intrusive meddling of the ASRB who routinely require plans to be modified because they don't "like" the design. Never mind the design conforms to the requirements of the town. They're held hostage to some committee person's opinion. We all know what opinions are like.....

Woodside: you need to fix your problem.

If they do further surveys, it would be great to send something to residents who have *not* done work recently. Obviously the survey for these folks couldn't be as detailed, but it might capture the sentiment of residents who, like me, were so discouraged by the process that we decided against actually having any work done. While the current survey base allows for very detailed questioning, it also introduces a selection bias that might understate the extent to which people are discouraged from actually having work done.

As someone that did a project last year, I'm horribly disappointed that we didn't get a survey questionnaire! If survey monkey was the only method, and emails commonly get blocked by spam filters, this is not an acceptable method to have as the only way to complete a survey