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Menlo Oaks: Another forested Menlo Park enclave

Menlo Oaks is a cozy and rustic 106 acre neighborhood with a country feel bordering Menlo Park and Atherton.  Though often considered part of Menlo Park proper, it is officially an unincorporated neighborhood.

Menlo Oaks is family friendly, boasting the renowned private K-8 Peninsula School, occupying six acres.  Public school children are also well catered for, since the area is part of the Menlo Park Elementary School District, despite being unincorporated – a testament to the active, strong, and influential neighborhood associated which lobbied to be included.  Also within its boundaries are the Veteran’s Administration Hospital, and St. Patrick’s Seminary and Park.

Residents of Menlo Oaks love the fact that it has maintained a rustic feel throughout the years of development that now surround the enclave.  There are no street lamps or sidewalks, and many mature, towering trees add to its wooded feel.

Menlo Oaks contains approximately 300 homes, most of which occupy half acre lots.  A whole range of architectural styles, including modern,  can be viewed on a quiet walk through its winding streets.

Being both further from the highway and having larger lots than neighboring Flood Park, Menlo Oaks’ prices are accordingly higher.  Some of the streets – Berkeley Ave, for instance – boast large multi-million mansions, decked out with the finest touches that venture capital and high-tech riches can buy.

The Willows — a classic Menlo Park neighborhood

Draped throughout with ancient, elegant Willow, Eucalyptus, and Oak trees, the neighborhood affectionately known as The Willows is part of Menlo Park.  It is bordered on the southeast side by the San Francisquito Creek, which serves as a border between Menlo Park and Palo Alto, and between San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.  Its west border is Willow Road – an easy link to the 101.

The southern part of the Willows by Middlefield Road is the most sought after area, with prices reflecting its desirability.  Visitors inevitably get lost in the curving streets, especially at the X-chromosome shaped intersection of Pope and Laurel – right in the middle of which a magnificent old Redwood tree, a veritable landmark, was felled by a lightning strike.

Further north the homes become more modest, with the occasional new home thrown in for good measure,  the most recent example of which is a small new four home development at the corner of Menalto and Gilbert.  A small portion of East Palo Alto spills across the 101, wedged between the sound barrier wall and the northern half of East O’Keefe street.

A casual walk through The Willows reveals a wide range of home styles and sizes –  small wooden cottages, stucco ranch styles, “Simon Homes” – an early developer of the 50’s, and newer mini-mansions with elaborately manicured yards.

A delightful, picturesque bike path connecting The Willows to Palo Alto makes a trip into downtown Palo Alto an easy 5 minute bike ride over the San Francisquito Creek, and an easy 10 ride to Stanford and the Stanford Shopping Center.

Menlo Park’s Fair Oaks neighborhood: A touch of the rustic in the middle of suburbia

One of the hidden treasures of Menlo Park is the Fair Oaks neighborhood, nestled between Middlefield Rd, Marsh Rd, and a seldom-used industrial rail track. Squashed between the three neighboring towns of Atherton, Menlo Park, and Redwood City, it nonetheless manages to have a character all its own.

A stranger walking the streets of Fair Oaks wouldn’t help but notice a lack of sidewalks and proper drainage, and an abundance of little British-style roundabouts. Both help create the unique sense of neighborhood for which Fair Oaks residents are justly proud — a uniqueness that comes from a peculiar combination of benign neglect (as part of unincorporated San Mateo County instead of Menlo Park proper) and a strong neighborhood association (which installed the roundabouts to slow down commuters who use the neighborhood as a way to avoid the traffic on Marsh and Middlefield).

The neighborhood association also oversees Fair Oaks Park, a little gem maintained without a cent of public money and situated on a Hetch Hetchy right of way; residents keep their fingers crossed that the massive water system’s pipes will never need to be dug up.

Being part of unincorporated San Mateo County — “Menlo Park” in this neighborhood being technically only a mailing address — is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, Fair Oaks residents don’t have the luxury of access to Menlo Park’s phenomenal elementary school system; on the other hand, property values are a good 20% to 30% lower than nearby Menlo Park proper, most of the difference being accounted for by…the poorer schools. What you would pay just under a million dollars for in nearby Flood Park would set you back a mere $800,000 or so in Fair Oaks.

Many of the homes are small — 1200 sq ft or less — and sit on small lots of 4500 sq ft or less, a testament to Fair Oak’s origins as weekend country homes for rich San Franciscans and San Jose-ans in the 1920’s. There are a smattering of larger lots left, mostly a relic of spillover estates from nearby Atherton, which technically the southeast corner of Fair Oaks is still part of.

Conveniently located only minutes from the bustling downtown of Palo Alto, as well as Menlo Park’s more bucolic downtown, Fair Oaks is also only a vigorous stone’s throw from highway 101, making it a convenient location for commuting to many of Silicon Valley’s top high-tech employers.

Strange sights #1 — Fair Oaks road construction

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.

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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