Location, Location, Location: Los Altos Hills, California

Isabella Beam

09/02/2002

Silicon Valley wasn’t even a pixel on the screen when Los Altos Hills was incorporated in 1956. So the town’s charter writers, when drafting a residential community dedicated to the “preservation of the rural atmosphere of the foothills and orderly and unhurried growth,” had no idea how desirable their genteel ranch land would become when the tech industry later aggregated around it.  

Now, with the stratospherically salaried whiz kids having to a great extent exited in the dust of the dot-com bust, Los Altos Hills remains home to the “enduring rich” of Silicon Valley—Hewlett-Packard’s CEO, Carly Fiorina, and Cisco Systems’ head, John Chambers. Los Altos Hills being the wealthiest of the Valley’s leafy-luxe communities, anything on the market below $3 million goes instantly. That’s real, not virtual, money.  

The one purpose for incorporating Los Altos Hills was to keep it forever rustic and non-commercially zoned. There’s a town hall, a church, a public elementary school and a private high school. The downtown is borrowed. Neighboring Los Altos’ charming village serves both communities nicely. Los Altos Hills was once two large Spanish-Mexican land grants that evolved into vineyards and then fruit orchards; now it’s all preserves, trails, parks, creeks—acre upon acre of open space (or what looks like open space but is often privately owned)—and all about maintaining that openness.  

The early townspeople were adamant about the concept of large-lot zoning: keeping big houses off small parcels. The floor-to-land-area ratio is 1,000 square feet to one acre (the minimum lot), meaning that on a 4-acre site, a residence can consist of a maximum of 4,500 square feet. Steep slopes are deemed unbuildable because of the increase in height and mass that the structures would demand. Deep setback requirements help keep houses out of sight.  
Around the time of the dot-bomb, the largest, most extravagantly appointed house in Santa Clara County (upwards of 14 bedrooms) changed hands. It says something about the Los Altos Hills planning code’s approach to scale that even the closest neighbors of that estate had to read about it in the newspaper to know that such megamansion trappings existed in their midst.  (Click image to enlarge)

There is no design review per se for new construction (catnip to architects). Design controls are benign; style isn’t dictated. Stay within the floor-to-land-area ratio, opt for nonflashy colors and materials, forget about fences or gates, and you’re bound to garner approval from the town’s planning commission.  

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Facts & Stats

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-Area: 8.4 square miles with an adjacent 5.8 square miles of unincorporated land that may be annexed.  

-Price Range: $1.5 million (for a fixer-upper) to $20 million. Market value for unimproved building sites is approximately $2 million per acre.  

-Cool Move: The Pathway System is 75 miles of roadside and off-road paths that meander through the hills to provide vista-commanding, nonvehicular access for walkers, runners, bicyclists and equestrians.  

-Geographically Desirable: A natural buffer between the urban San Francisco Bay Area and the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains, Los Altos Hills is located 35 miles south of San Francisco, five miles south of Stanford University and 17 miles north of downtown San Jose.  
-Gilding the Lily: The Los Altos School District is rated number one in the state; llamas and goldfish figure prominently in the annual pet parade that CEOs roll up their shirtsleeves to organize; the Los Altos Hills Horsemen’s Association operates a public riding rink.  (Click image to enlarge)

-Next Wave: Two of California’s most progressive architecture firms—Jim Jennings in San Francisco and Callas Shortridge in Los Angeles—have sleek modernist houses (the antitheses of McMansions) scheduled for 2003 completion.  

-Who to Call:
Helen Kuckens, Coldwell Banker, 650.917.4225, www.helenkuckens.com;
Jo Buchanan and David Troyer, Coldwell Banker, www. buchananandtroyer.com;
Abigail Ahrens, The Abigail Company, 650. 949.1909, www.teamabigail.com;
Mary Gullixson and Bonnie Biorn, Alain Pinel Realtors, 650.462.1111, www. gullixson.com and www.bonniebiorn.com