1. Do you live in Emerald Hills, CA?
Yes  100% (112)
Total responding to this question  112 (non-resident responses were not tallied)

2. How did you first learn about the EmeraldHills.org web site?
Newsletter                    79.5% (89)
Search Engine                  5.4% (6)
Other (please specify)         5.4% (6)
Neighbor word-of-mouth         4.5% (5)
Board Director word-of-mouth   2.7% (3)
At an ELHA Meeting             2.7% (3)
Total responding to this question  112

3. Please rank the following topics by their importance to you:
                           Most Important               --- to ---            Least Important   Rank Avg
area preservation/beaut.   36% (39)  32% (35)  20% (22)   6% (6)    4% (4)   0% (0)    2% (2)     2.16
fire safety                45% (49)  21% (23)  14% (15)  11% (12)   6% (6)   1% (1)    2% (2)     2.20
zoning/development regs    31% (32)  31% (32)  16% (17)   8% (8)    5% (5)   3% (3)    7% (7)     2.61
crime/personal safety      33% (35)  23% (24)  12% (13)  11% (12)   7% (7)   8% (8)    6% (6)     2.81
road conditions            21% (23)  28% (31)  19% (21)  14% (15)   7% (8)   6% (7)    5% (6)     2.99
schools                    40% (42)  10% (11)  12% (13)  11% (12)   8% (9)   8% (8)   10% (11)    3.03
traffic control            20% (22)  20% (22)  17% (19)  12% (13)  11% (12) 12% (13)   9% (10)    3.45
Total responding to this question  111

4. We wish to gauge community interest on the subject of undergrounding utility cables. 
   This will reduce fire hazards and beautify the area, but at some cost to homeowners
   Would you like the ELHA to research the process and cost of a community-wide undergrounding project?
Yes       87.7% (93)
No        12.3% (13)
Comment   27.4% (29)(Comments to question 4 are below.)
Total responding to this question  106

5. We desire to communicate more effectively with our member homeowners. 
   Please rank your preferred way of being notified of community information.
                    More Preferred     ---  to ---    Less Preferred    Rank Avg
Email               83% (85)  10% (10)   4% (4)    1% (1)    3% (3)       1.32
Mailed Newsletter   29% (26)  26% (23)  19% (17)   9% (8)   17% (15)      2.58
Mailed Postcard     10% (8)   24% (20)  23% (19)  15% (13)  29% (24)      3.30
Public Meeting       5% (4)   15% (13)  23% (19)  32% (27)  25% (21)      3.57
Telephone            0% (0)    6% (5)    6% (5)   12% (10)  75% (61)      4.57
Total responding to this question  103

6. If email is one of your preferred methods, please provide your name and email address. 
   We will add you to our community mail list (which is used only for ELHA business).
Total responding to this question  84

• 1 Since we are the first house on Lakeview at Cordilleras, we are concerned about the traffic. We realize there is no solution to this - but commute traffic in the morning is a hazard at the stop sign trying to get out onto Edgewood. We heard a traffic light is planned to be installed here - truth?
• 2 I think it's about time that something drastic is done about the cars parked 1/2 on 1/2 off the streets. It is getting congested up here and these cars pose a problem. Case in point. New house on Sylvan/Lakeview. New owner parks white truck on corner curve 1/2 on 1/2 off. The sheriff needs to have the whole area patrolled and cars sited immediately, no 3 day waiting period. It's getting dangerous. Emerald Lakes is no longer patrolled by anyone.
• 3 Your dedication, hard work, and enormous sacrifices on time spent, in making and keeping Emerald Hills a desirable neighborhood, would seem futile, if residents continue to abuse use of street parking. New homes apparently got zoning approval to dedication the front part of their property to street park their recreation vehicles, trucks, and many other vehicles. Old and abandoned vehicles continue to remain in narrow streets. In real estate property appraisal, the sight of these vehicles parked in the streets will not enhance our collective property values.
• 4 I live near the intersection of Oak Knoll and Lake Blvd. On a daily basis I am barraged with speeding vehicles and screeching tires. Apparently a few of our younger residents have decided that this intersection, because it is so wide, is the perfect place to do wheelies, lay as much rubber as possible, do donuts (spin their cars in circles) and go from zero to 90 as fast as they can. In addition to the screeching tires and dangerous speeding in this area, several of the local kids now have motorized scooters which are very noisy and sometimes echo thru the hills late at night not to mention a couple of super noisy motorcycles that do all of the above on a regular basis. Is anyone else complaining about these issues??
• 5 Thank you for doing this. The website is great and newsletter continues to be informative and helpful. Thank you for your efforts on undergrounding utilities. We are very eager to have this happen as soon as possible.
• 6 Thanks for your good work. This is a great place to live.
• 7 I already snt an email to David requesting the newsletter on line. Thanks for offering that! One of my biggest concerns is the way people drive up here. We have only lived here two years, and I realize you can't force people to drive safely, but when we are out walking sometimes you feel like you are taking your life in your hands! Also, when driving I've had some narrow escapes and come close to being hit. Any suggestions.
• 8 Thank you for all the work that you do for us!
• 9 I would like to know what needs to be done in order to finally get the entrance markers built and installed for our community? I have heard about this project for several years now, but it seems like as if it has fallen off the radar screen of our board members. That is too bad.
• 10 We do not want an activist ELHA that keeps coming up with ideas for things to change. We want the area to stay the same as it has been. We wanted the zoning to stay the same and the board did not help at all. Over seventy people signed the petition to keep the zoning low density. This was 100% of the people that were presented with the petition. Thirty-six people went to the supervisors and they paid us no attention partly because the ELHA implied it was OK to increase the density and nobody from ELHA showed any support.
• 11 Thank you all very much for your work.
• 12 Hello, I'm very interested in getting an update on the community center on Canyon/Oak Knoll. Are there plans to renovate and bring in new merchants or businesses. What appears to be the delay, and isn't there ordinances against building that are vacant for more than 15 years. This is a blight on the neighborhood, with random parked cars and loitering. How nice it would be to have a "central" meeting place for community members, much like the Canyon Coffee place has tried to achieve. She can't do it alone. Any update would be greatly appreciated, and if there's anything I can do as a resident, please let me know. Thanks for all your effors.
• 13 Fantastic website! We look forward to understanding how we can volunteer our services to the ELHA.
• 14 Currently we receive two newsletters - you should clean up the database so we receive only one. One area that ELHA could help a lot is with high speed internet access. Our house is 16,000 from the nearest repeater, so no one (including Megapath) offers DSL to us. Megapath told me that they'd sell me a 144kbps connection for $100 a month. We need to convince PacBell to install a repeater in our neighborhood (opening up DSL service in our area from a variety of vendors) or get AT&T to offer cable modem service. ELHA, representing the entire neighborhood, would get attention from them. Any help would be appreciated.
• 15 Edgewood Park late evening parties continues to be a problem. New resurfacing of Sunset Way left a highly unsafe condition to our walkway that neither the contractor or county wish to address.
• 16 You may want to consider an online message board on the ELHA website if enough people are interested. It may be a good forum to see if there are older kids that may be available for babysitting or if people are interested in carpools or what people think of certain neighborhood issues - things of that nature.
• 17 My most important concern and not reflected specifically in the survey is speeding! I live on Jefferson between Emerald Hill Rd and Lakeview. People routinely go over 40MHP up and down the road. It is dangerous to cross and pull out of our driveway. One of our dogs was hit by a car and a relative's car was hit trying to merge on to Jefferson. I'd like to petition a new stop sign at the intersection of Jefferson and Emerald Hill to slow traffic. That intersection is also near by Roy Cloud school and would improve pedestrian safety as well.
• 18 Ability of Emerald Hills residents to attend Woodside schools - particularly elementary & middle school. Developing a stronger sense of community - should we have some type of event? Since we don't have our own community center/shopping area, it's not as easy to meet people -- particularly those with children (who attend various different schools).
• 19 I would appreciate the organizations review and input on the new fire station under design at Jefferson and Wilmington Way
• 20 I am already on the email distribution list. thank you.
• 21 I am currently receiving the newsetter on line. This is great. Try to encourage more people to do it.
• 22 Any chance of tackling the air traffic problem over us?
• 23 You already contact us by email. Thanks! I would love to see the Eucalyptus covered, fenced SF Water Company land on Upland be turned into a community park someday. Do you think there's any chance of that? I believe the building there is unused (except for kids, who I have heard have covered it with graffiti inside). Just a notion one of my neighbors and I have chatted about.
• 24 1)Traffic on Jefferson is a concern. Would be interested in the possibility of speed bumps by the new fire station. 2) Interested in tips on how to encourage neighbors who own vacant lots to clear them. (Woodside Fire Dept. wasn't able to accomplish this.) 3) Garbage on Jefferson a concern. I have actually seen vehicles (usually teenagers) throw McDonald's type trash into the side drainage ditches. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a license.
• 25 People drive too fast around these narrow roads. There should be more posted stop signs at our uncontrolled intersections.
• 26 Let's get those utility lines buried!!!!
• 27 I'm already on the email list. Please make sure I don't get added again.
• 28 Is it possible to put a small park in the empty space on California way near the fire station?
• 29 Emerald Hills property values and the property taxes generated by them have skyrocketed over the last 5 years, yet San Mateo County's spending on Emerald Hills, as evidenced primarily by the same very poor roads, has not changed. How can we exert the leverage necesary to obtain a level of service commensurate with the current economic contribution we are making to county coffers? The idea that it is adequate for San Mateo to "preserve the existing standard" for road quality is ludicrous. EH homeowners are not preserving the 900 sf cabins that were std in the 1950s, nor are we paying the pitance in taxes that was standard then, we should not accept road quality that is decades out of step with the area.
• 30 I am already on David's email list with Emerald Hills. As a 43 year resident of Cordilleras Road I want to make it known that the SPEEDING TRAFFIC on our road is out of control. It is only a matter of time before some homeowner is killed going to get their mail. We have had neighborhood meetings with public works officials before asking for speed bumps which they said was out of the question - instead we got a few more stops signs. CHP and Sheriff cars are out here occasionally, but that is just a bandaid for an on going problem. Also, what happened to the Emerald Hill signs that were suppose to go up at our entrances to Emerald Hills? Pls put an update in the next newsletter regarding this.
• 31 Good job on the Website!
• B1 What a great job you are doing. The web site is super. Thanks for doing a great community service.
• B2 I would really like to see a stoplight at Edgewood and Cordilleras/Lakeview. From my house I hear accidents all the time and have narrowly escaped myself several times. It might only need to operate during the commute hours. At other times it could flash yellow on Edgewood and red on Cordilleras/Lakeview. Many mornings it is impossible to even leave Edgewood and get on to Cordilleras as the traffic is so backed up.
• B3 We would like to see ELHA encourage Sheriff and CHP random patrolling. There is constant violations of speeding, littering, disobedience of traffic signs, disregard for people walking. Perhaps an ordinance against those loud thumping car stereos.
• B4 I have found 3 concerns in our area: 1. Garbage-recycling containers left in front of home 7 days a week. This is unsightly. Some enforcement to get this taken care of. 2. Barking dogs-Sheriff department lack of cooperation on third violation to remove the animal. 3.Building homes on lots less than 5000 square feet.
• B5 I'm already on your email list, I think. Could we have a neutral party (civil engineer?)come and EXPLAIN the building codes up here. Sure seems like a lot of the new houses DO have greater than 25% footprint; maybe it's just the planar vs sloped views, but it sure seems as if those building restrictions don't apply very often! Just understanding what those regs mean (with a scale model?) might help a fair number of folks. A neutral 3rd party (hey, I'm just telling you the definition -- objections have to be taken up with your county gov!) would make for a rather interesting educational meeting.
• B6 I have two concerns: 1. enforcement of the speed limit on Jefferson Ave. between Wilmington and Lakeview. It seems the cars exceed the posted 25 MPH limit. 2. Finding and developing a public park and playground here in Emerald Hills. The closest playground is Roy Cloud and the closest park in Stalstaff (sp). Thank you for putting out the survey and I hope the results will be posted on the website.
• B7 How are plans for the ELH signs going??
• C1 I love our name Emerald Hills, but the county doesn't recognize it yet. All title reports show Redwood City still. I just had a problem with my refinance on this. I wish someone would let the county know so they can change their records. This is very important to anyone who is selling their house. Thank you.
• C2 Hello! I recently purchased xxx Lakeview Way. My chief concern is the speed of traffic along the lower stretch of Lakeview Way. Do you have any recommendations about how to get the police to post speed limits and make drivers aware of how dangerous it is there? Thanks!
• C3 I am interested in getting school information (for example I've heard conflicting information on the borders of Roy Cloud and Clifford Districts. A map of DSL providers (and any information about a DSLAM location beyond the downtown RC site) would be a nice resource, too. Thanks!
• C4 I am very concerned with on-street parking. Cars parked everywhere along the road are not only an eyesore they are saftey issues as well. It seems, also, a slippery slope. More and more people are parking on-street. Some offenders have garages that are not used. Often it is presumed by many that parking IN the road is fine. Given the long debate for road improvements in Emerald Hills the reasons for working with homeowners, county officials, and the sheriff's department would seem evident. In other words the very same reasons given for widening and paving our roads argues in favor of clearing and eforcement. Fortunately, those who prefer to maintain the "character" of our narrow quaint streets are equaly if not better served by the very same action. It is a win/win with the exception of the disgruntled. Please let's clean up our streets, yards, and frontages. It is embarrassing. While I have your attention, and for what it is worth, I would note that I believe sound abatement issues will be a rising concern for our community as well (Boom Box cars, gas powered skate boards, off road vehicles...)
• C5 I feel the building here in Emerald Hills is out of control. They are building big houses on little lots and we who have been here for a while can't even have a new pantry for instance. I don't understand how this unfairness works.
• C6 I am a huge fan of underground wires.
• C7 concerns #1 barking dogs failure of sherrifs dept to take it past the second call.i've watched the patrol car drive right by the violators home without stopping and say they heard nothing.the dog has been barking 4 years and i dont know what else to do .talking to the owners has done nothing .any ideas????
• C8 I understand that during the summer months you have memberships for non-residents at Emerald Lake. Do you have any memberships available for 2003?
• C9 I wonder if there would be interest in having a community event (summer potluck party?) thanks for putting this website together. Looks good!

Comments to Question 4:
(B and C in the numbering refers to subsequent survey tallies.)

• 1 With minimal cost and distruption to the community, of course.
• 2 I live on Lake Blvd and paid to have my electric/cable undergrounded. However, everyday I have to stare at hundreds of unsightly wires strung all around the lake and up and down Oak Knoll. Is there any chance of getting these wires undergrounded in the near future
• 3 ABSOLUTELY!! Didn't we vote a few years ago once a sewer bond was paid off to continue paying the same amount and use the money for undergrounding utility cables. What happened?
• 4 I think that undergrounding would produce the most important improvement to ELH.
• 5 A lot of the utility poles are in poor shape and overloaded because of the building. Our electrical pole blows out quite frequently and is unsightly.
• 6 This would be great. what an eye sore!
• 7 I hope we could add a similar bond to our tax bill as was done in the 80's when the sewage system was put in
• 8 Keep it the same as it is --- like no change!
• 9 I think spending money for this would be a very worthwhile investment.
• 10 We wholeheartedly support the investigation to this project!
• 11 PGE poles are a hazard because many are too close to the road. Their wires are one of the ugliest things in our neighborhood. Perhaps we could do a street-by-street survey to identify the streets that want underground utilities, and put together an assessment district that consists of those streets. We could have two assessment - those that have underground service to the street, and those that do not. I'd be willing to help.
• 12 I would definitely like to see some research done - The cost may be well worth the improvements to safety and appearance. My main concern is the length of time our narrow roads may have to be closed - I've heard horror stories about the project in the Oakland hills dragging on endlessly.
• 13 I think you need to indicate to people the "range" of cost - my recollection was it is in the $10K per household range - If it's alot more then I wouldn't think you whould waste you time
• 14 Yes, yes, yes!!! The cables are a real eyesore for us.
• 15 Yes, Yes, yes. This is a high priority for me and I would gladly pay. Increased property values will far exceed costs....
• 16 The demographics of Emerald Hills have changed dramatically since this idea (and that of improving key roads by bringing them up to proper width and construction) were defeated. It is definately time to try again!!!
• 17 excellent idea.
• B1 Please let us know how we can help!
• B2 YES, YES, YES, I would love to help the cause if I can.
• B3 The above ground lines significantly detract from the beauty of the area
• B4 Undergrounding will mean either tearing up the recently repaved roads, or the landscaping next to them -- which in some cases might mean taking out or damaging trees. Research it, yes, but GO FOR IT ... nah, don't think so. HOWEVER, important questions to research in addition to cost: Would underground utilities be more likely to remain ON in a storm? Lightning DOES hit them (Florida has shown that). Also, would they help reduce fire danger? i.e., how many suburban fires are started by lightning (not FOREST fire; urban area fires.)
• B5 Please do this! My access lines are buried, however lines for others run across my front yard. If anything should happen the pole on lot over, those HUGE lines would be over my driveway and front yard. I am very intersted in getting this project started and FINISHED!
• B6 our utilities are already underground. I would like to see it done community-wide but do not wish to pay again
• C1 I would happily pay several thousand dollars for undergrounding utility cables! Good for you for considering this.
• C2 I think undergrounding utilities is a wonderful idea but, the cart is in front of the horse. There are basic issues relevant to this enhancment which must be addressed first. Namely, on street parking (our community is looking like an undulating trailer park), code enforcement regarding property maintenance, and street conditions. Let's do the basics first.
• C3 non of this matters if street parking problem is not addressed. neighhood rating depends largely on how residents take pride in maintenance of their buildings and less or no parking in the streets.
• C4 I am strongly in favor of under ground cables if it is possible to install and service them without significant detrimental impact to the oak trees.
• C5 Especially if all homeowners share in the cost and the total cost is $2500 per parcel or less.
• C6 Need to know generally the costs and effects.