Hikers at Palo Alto's Arastradero Nature Preserve will encounter trail closures and heavy machinery starting in summer 2027 after the Parks and Recreation Commission voted 6-0 on Tuesday, July 28, to advance a two-year utility relocation and creek stabilization project.
The work traces back to March 2023, when a hiker spotted an exposed gas line near Arastradero Creek and alerted the city, Palo Alto Online reported. City crews dumped cobblestones into the channel as a temporary fix, but the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board has since ordered permanent improvements, threatening a $5,000-per-day penalty if the city doesn't comply.
More than three years later, the project is finally moving through approvals.
What's being built
Three utility lines serve the Palo Alto Hills neighborhood through the creek area: a gas pipeline, an 18-inch potable water line, and an 8-inch sewer line. The project will lower the gas line in place and move the water and sewer lines to higher ground away from the creek banks.
To stabilize the eroding channel, crews plan to build roughly 10 step pools, stair-like stone structures, and 25 post-assisted log structures made of logs, cobbles, and natural debris held together by posts spanning the creek.
Aaron Perkins, senior engineer with the Palo Alto Utilities Department, told the commission the approach "minimizes the impact to the existing habitat by constructing various small structures, mainly built with hand tools in strategic locations throughout the creek."
Two construction phases
Phase 1, scheduled for June through October 2027, focuses on in-channel work: the step pools, log structures, and gas line relocation. Phase 2, June through October 2028, moves the water and sewer lines to an upland route.
The city has not yet identified which specific trails will close during construction or what alternative routes will be available. Several commissioners urged City Council to be transparent about those impacts before approving the project.
Former Parks and Recreation Commissioner Jeff Greenfield captured that concern during a 2025 public hearing: "Please don't assume that you can just stage whatever you want there for as long as you want. It impacts the community."
Funding and next steps
The project carries a price tag of roughly $483,000, covered by $386,755 in FEMA funding and $96,689 in state grants. No city general fund money is involved.
The Water Quality Control Board is expected to issue final approval by the end of August, with a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit anticipated by the end of September. City Council is scheduled to consider the project in December 2026, and construction cannot begin until Council signs off.
The preserve is already dealing with a separate 4.1-acre closure through Wednesday, June 30, 2027, from the Page Fire burn scar left by a Monday, June 22 wildland fire.
