Strange sights #1 — Fair Oaks road construction

September 5, 2006

If you’ve driven in Fair Oaks lately (the Menlo Park neighborhood near Marsh and Middlefield, not the Sunnyvale street), you’ll know the county has been giving the streets, especially 9th Avenue and Oak Drive, a much-needed makeover.The construction crews and vehicles have gone, but their handiwork on Oak Drive between San Benito and Encina looks a little suspect.
Notice anything odd about the picture below of Oak Drive, facing northwest from the intersection of Oak Drive and Placitas? It looks like they’ve only done one half of the street!

Oak Drive near Placitas — only one half paved?

As you go further northwest on Oak Drive, you get to Encina, and from there on, both sides are paved.

Oak Drive near Encina — both halves paved

Why would the county arbitrarily pave half of Oak Drive on one part of the street, but the whole street elsewhere? Union strike? Ran out of money? Bad engineering?

Turns out the answer is pretty innocent — and quite informative about city boundaries. Though much of Fair Oaks is in unincorporated San Mateo county (with a Menlo Park mailing address), a sliver of it actually belongs to Atherton. The boundary, as it turns out, runs literally halfway through Oak Drive itself between San Benito and Encina, then runs left on Encina until it meets up with Middlefield and the rest Atherton proper.

So, the county’s responsibility is only for the northeastern half of Oak Drive between San Benito and Encina, and then all of Oak Drive northwest of Encina.

Confused? Maybe this map will help; the dark green shading is Atherton’s bit of Fair Oaks; the lighter green is the Menlo Park section.

Boundary between Atherton (dark green) and Menlo Park

We’ll have to wait for the Town of Atherton to pave the other half.

Strange indeed.

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under 94025, 94027, Atherton, For buyers, Menlo Park, Real estate, Strange sights 

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