Palo Alto Rolls Out Welcome Mat To Foothills Park Visitors

PALO ALTO, CA — A Palo Alto Park that had been open exclusively to city residents for more than 60 years is now open the public.

The city was in the crosshairs of an ACLU lawsuit when it councilmembers by a 5-2 margin voted to overturn a controversial ordinance Nov. 5 that opened the picturesque park to the public.

The picturesque 1,400-acre preserve off Page Mill Road had been off-limits to outsiders since it was purchased by the city in 1959, a policy that racial justice advocates said was discriminatory.

“Following thoughtful community discussion over several years, we are thrilled to open the park to everyone,” Palo Alto Mayor Adrian Fine said in a statement.

“We hope this provides another regional option to go outdoors and provide opportunities for environmental stewardship and education. Foothills Park is a place for everyone to enjoy, explore and learn.”

The park opened to the public Dec. 17. City officials said in a news release that capacity would continue to be capped at 1,000 visitors, and that it would allow just 750 at a time for the first 90 days.

The novelty of hiking trails that was forbidden just a few weeks ago has attracted overflow crowds to the preserve, The Mercury News reports.

Ranger Dave Pringle said park visitors exceeded that cap Monday and that his staff have turned away visitors during peak hours in recent days according to the report.

“It’s no surprise they’d try to keep it to themselves,” San Francisco residents Elise and Garrett Schado told the news outlet. “It’s beautiful.”

The ACLU moved to compel the South Bay city to lift an exclusionary ordinance that's come under scrutiny in recent months in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in police custody.

The ACLU's Northern California affiliate filed a lawsuit September compelling Palo Alto to remove what it calls an "unconstitutional residents-only restriction at Foothills Park" that stands as "a legacy of the city's history of racial discrimination."

Foothills Park had been the state's only such "residents-only" park.

"I cannot in good conscience sit by while the city of Palo Alto uses my tax dollars to perpetuate the exclusion of people from public spaces in my community," said plaintiff LaDoris Cordell, a retired Superior Court judge and former member of the Palo Alto City Council earlier this year.

"The practice of blocking non-residents from Foothills Park perpetuates inequity, and it must end."

Councilmembers Greg Tanaka and Lydia Kou voted against overturning the ordinance.

"I'm hoping the community can move forward and we could start focusing on things that will have more meaningful and bigger benefits," Tanaka said according to a San Francisco Chronicle report.

The park’s opening followed an organized group’s failed petition drive seeking to overturn the council’s decision to open the park to the public according to The Mercury News report.