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Safety commission tells developer to widen Bohlman Road to 18 feet
By Oakley Brooks
After weighing residents' concerns about fire safety and tree protection, the public safety commission told developer John M. Sobrato to widen Bohlman Road to 18 feet from Madronia Cemetery to Norton Road.
Sobrato is planning a 10-home development at the Sisters of Notre Dame complex that formerly operated as a school and California headquarters for the order of nuns. For Sobrato's development to proceed, the commission laid out a plan for narrow, tree-lined Bohlman Road, which will feed the future housing site.
Some hillside residents suggested at public hearings last summer that Sobrato install a second road parallel to Bohlman Road, in order to preserve the verdant look of the street and improve emergency access to the hillside.
Using the recommendations of a private traffic consultant, the commission chose to have Sobrato broaden the existing paved road by up to 5 feet in some sections and grade a 1-foot shoulder on each side.
The commission did not ask for further traffic-calming measures, such as speed humps or traffic circles, though they were considered.
The widening plan will involve the loss of 14 trees, mostly on the western side of the road. City arborist Barrie Coate told the commission he doesn't consider any of those trees valuable specimens. Expanding the road to the west preserves redwoods and other trees on the east side of the road that Coate deemed healthier and more worthy trees.
The minimum width of 20 feet--18 paved feet with a 2-foot shoulder--also fulfills Fire Chief Ernie Kraule's request to allow enough room for heavy fire equipment to travel up Bohlman.
"It's a reasonable compromise," said Norton Road resident Bev Phipps, who's been actively campaigning for fire safety on Bohlman. "I can live with it."
Phipps has also been in conversation with Kraule, the city and Villa Montalvo recently about a proposed fire trail from Norton Road through the Montalvo property. The trail would give emergency vehicles access to the upper Bohlman Road area, should the lower section of the road become blocked.
Sobrato says he's satisfied with the public safety commission's mandate.
He'll have to finish the road improvements by the time of the city's final inspection at the development's completion. Sobrato is still working with city planning staff on a final subdivision map, which he says will be completed in the next month. Demolition is expected to begin soon after. The development will include 10 5,000- to 7,000-square-foot homes in a low-density layout.
Sobrato indicated this summer that one of the 11 subdivided lots on the 23.5-acre property will be sold to the Saratoga Cemetery District and another will house him and his wife, who've lived in Saratoga for 12 years.
The Sisters of Notre Dame plan to move their operations soon from the existing Bohlman Road campus to the city of Belmont.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
