Weeks Neighborhood Plan Spoke of Dreams for a City That Balances Nature with "Redevelopment"

“East Palo Alto’s Weeks Neighborhood is unique in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a richly green place with many large trees and open views, in sharp contrast to the concrete and freeways of much of the nearby Bay Area. Many people come to the neighborhood and stay for a lifetime, creating a close-knit community. Historically it has been a farming place due to its rich soils, abundance of clean water and sunny climate outside the coastal fog zone. Communities like this were once common throughout the Bay Area, but today are rare. This Neighborhood Plan seeks to maintain the Weeks Neighborhood as a thriving place to live and work. It will allow the Weeks Neighborhood to accommodate new housing and commercial development without sacrificing its unique historic character. It will give the Weeks Neighborhood and all of East Palo Alto a strong positive identity built on existing assets. Through this vision, the Weeks Neighborhood will become more “sustainable.” A sustainable community is economically, socially and environmentally healthy, and it has the capacity to remain healthy over time. To achieve sustainability, a community must use its resources, including land, natural systems and people, in a way that does not exhaust them. To achieve sustainability, a community must balance human and natural needs with economic development.”

This provides an introduction to the Weeks Neighborhood Plan, developed in the mid 1990s. The visionary plan was developed by the following:

EAST PALO ALTO HISTORICAL AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
Trevor Burrowes, Executive Director
Patricia Foster, Community Organizer

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE RIVERS, TRAILS AND CONSERVATION ASISTANCE PROGRAM
Martha Crusius, Project Manager

URBAN ECOLOGY, INC.
Paul Okamoto, Project Manager

STEERING COMMITTEE:
Arleen Furukawa
Arthur James
Lisa Motoyama
Michael Rios
Regine Shambrook
Andrea Traber

And funded by the

HEWLETT FOUNDATION
Menlo Park, California

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program
San Francisco, California

COLUMBIA FOUNDATION
San Francisco, California

NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Western Regional Office
San Francisco, California