"the citizen-based Committee for Green Foothills and the Sierra Club fought development of open space, project by project, to preserve the land."

Great to have quotes like that one above even in articles that aren't about us, but rather about long-time journalist Marion Softky:

The scale of open space from the valley to the coast is unmatched in a large metropolitan area, she says.

The "Freeway Revolt" stopped the extension of Willow Road to the coast; the proposed outer Bayshore Freeway was never built; and a plan was scuttled to "level" the top of San Bruno Mountain to provide fill for proposed development in and around San Francisco Bay.

Incorporation of Woodside in 1955, followed by Portola Valley in 1964, further contributed to preserving the rural atmosphere, undeveloped hillsides and forests. Voters wanted to take control of their future rather than let the county continue to make their land-use decisions.

While these incorporations tended to slow growth in the two towns, the citizen-based Committee for Green Foothills and the Sierra Club fought development of open space, project by project, to preserve the land.

Ms. Softky says environmentalists such as Olive Mayer, Claire Dedrick and Lennie Roberts followed the motto: "Victories are temporary; defeats are permanent. To save open space, you have to buy land fee simple."