Competing Los Altos Projects Clash Over Orchard

While Palo Alto couldn’t agree on historic home preservation, Los Altos has spent time arguing over historic orchard preservation. Efforts to expand the library, build a dog park, and provide other civic center improvements have been hamstrung over what commitment the city has in order to preserve a historic apricot orchard on city property.

This has culminated in Los Altos hiring a historian to evaluate the requirements or the responsibility to preserve the orchard, and conduct any necessary CEQA reviews on the site. The Los Altos Library Endowment has covered the CEQA costs as much of those impacts would come from its efforts to expand the library and build further space that would encroach upon the current orchard.

City officials have taken criticism for not following CEQA requirements and acting unilaterally without council discretion. In fact, some local critics have even claimed recent Supreme Court decisions regarding environmental review should override city staff’s discretionary involvement. The library project is slated to break ground in early 2025 but that may be pending the full review of the historic orchard.

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