Ladera is the unincorporated San Mateo County community next to the Town of Portola Valley where Eichler Homes built a subdivision designed by the architects A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons in the early 1950s. A published history says the Ladera Eichler homes were the second plan for this land: a housing cooperative planned the community first, and Eichler Homes redeveloped part of the site only after the cooperative dissolved.
This guide keeps those two stories apart. It covers Ladera's county status, the cooperative, what the National Register forms say about the Eichler phase, the county zoning districts that apply today, and what to check before you buy or remodel. Where a fact rests on a published account rather than an official record, we say so.
Ladera is county land, not the Town of Portola Valley
Ladera is often filed under Portola Valley. The National Register forms quoted below call it "the Ladera subdivision in Portola Valley," and the Ladera Recreation District's office uses a Portola Valley mailing address. But Ladera is not inside the town.
A May 11, 2026 circulation draft review of the Ladera Recreation District by the San Mateo Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) says the district "is located in the unincorporated community of Ladera, adjacent to the Town of Portola Valley," and that "the community of Ladera was founded earlier, in 1946." The same draft says:
Local voters and the Board of Supervisors set up the recreation district in April 1958 as a community services district.
Community services districts "do not have land use authority," so the district runs parks and recreation, not planning.
The district lies within the Town of Portola Valley's sphere of influence, and the draft calls Ladera "already built out."
The Ladera Community Association is a separate, non-governmental nonprofit.
In practice, that means San Mateo County's zoning code and Planning and Building Department govern a Ladera remodel, not the town. Our Portola Valley mid-century modern homes page covers the town itself, and our 94028 mid-century modern homes page covers that ZIP code.
Before Eichler: the Peninsula Housing Association plan
The earlier plan is documented in a published history of landscape architect Garrett Eckbo's work, not in a county record we could read. According to that history:
In 1945 Eckbo worked on the site plan for the Ladera development with Robert Royston, engineer Nicholas Cirino and architects Joseph Allen Stein and John Funk.
The Peninsula Housing Association's founders "had turned toward cooperative organization."
The plan set lots from a quarter acre to two and a half acres along cul-de-sacs, kept footpaths apart from car traffic in most places, and added tree plantings to the existing clusters of live oaks.
Stein and Funk drew the house plans, with large expanses of glass that opened the rooms to the garden.
The same history says only a minimal part of that plan was carried out. It says the federal housing agency turned down the group's request for a construction loan, and that by 1949, after some houses had been built one at a time with individual financing, the association was dissolved and the site sold. Ladera's plan, it says, "was then revised and partially redeveloped by Eichler Homes with houses designed by architects Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons."
By that account, the houses built under the cooperative are not Eichlers: they came first, from different architects. LAFCo's 1946 founding date for the community also predates the Eichler phase.
The Eichler phase and the Jones & Emmons designs
The official record of the Eichler phase is short. The National Register nominations for Palo Alto's Green Gables and Greenmeadow tracts, both on file with the National Park Service, describe the press coverage Eichler Homes drew in the early 1950s. Both say a West Coast architecture journal ran "a pair of articles featuring the Ladera subdivision in Portola Valley, designed by Jones and Emmons. The first, in 1950, described the designs." They continue: "in the November 1951 issue, an article documented the completed first phase of the development," citing the "enormous value of real cooperation between the architect and builder," and concluding that the results assured a "better way of living at a much more reasonable cost."
The sources don't agree exactly on timing:
The National Register forms date the first article on the Ladera designs to 1950.
A published account says the designs were unveiled in the journal's January 1951 issue and that Jones & Emmons Eichlers stood at Ladera by August 1951.
Caltrans' statewide study of tract housing says Jones and Emmons formed their partnership in Los Angeles in 1950, that a low-cost house Jones designed for a San Diego builder was published in December 1950 and caught Eichler's eye, and that "shortly thereafter" the firm began designing houses for Eichler.
Caltrans adds that the firm kept designing for Eichler through the 1950s and 1960s, with Jones as principal designer. Our guide to which architects designed which Eichlers puts Ladera in that larger story.
Eichler's later company appears in the record too. The project index for the archive of Claude Oakland's firm at UC Berkeley's Environmental Design Archives lists a 1969 residential project by J.L. Eichler Associates, Inc. on a lot in "Ladera Unit No 10." The entry names no street, and the index alone doesn't show what was built.
Streets, models and what to look for
No official record we read lists the Ladera Eichler streets or counts the houses, so we don't give a count. The published account places the original Ladera Eichlers on the Aliso Way cul-de-sac and on La Mesa Drive off Alpine Road, which it calls the neighborhood's main thoroughfare. It says the Ladera models included split-level and two-level designs.
The Greenmeadow nomination describes what Jones and Emmons brought to Eichler's houses in general, which helps when you look at a Ladera house:
Roof profiles. It says Jones's designs used "pronounced roof profiles," built without the expensive trusses or extra framing of a builder's typical "cathedral ceilings."
Carports. It describes carports "sheltered under an extension of the living room roof shape."
Plans. It credits Jones with "free-flowing dining/living areas and clearly zoned public and private areas."
Those lines describe Greenmeadow's models, so treat them as a guide to the firm's approach. Keep the cooperative in mind, too: the published history says Stein and Funk's houses also used large expanses of glass, so a modern house on a Ladera street isn't automatically an Eichler. Our Jones & Emmons floor plans page collects plan drawings for comparison.
County rules: the Ladera zoning districts
As of November 2026, San Mateo County's zoning code has four residential combining districts named for Ladera: S-95, S-104, S-106 and S-110. The county's zoning map layer shows them as R-1 with S-95, S-104 or S-106, and R-E with S-110. Each district's chapter states the same purposes, among them to:
"Control house mass and bulk to preserve privacy and sunlight, and to prevent significant change to the community's overall character";
"Encourage houses that harmonize with the neighborhood's existing scale of development, rather than dominate or loom above adjacent structures."
The four chapters share these limits:
Height. A maximum of 28 feet where the building site's slope is under 15 percent, and 30 feet where it's steeper, measured from the lower of natural or finished grade.
Daylight plane. A plane that starts 15 or 20 feet up at the setback lines, depending on slope, and rises inward at 45 degrees until it reaches the height limit.
Floor area and coverage. Each district also caps total floor area and parcel coverage, and the minimum parcel width differs by district, from 50 to 100 feet.
The county's design review committees review new development in unincorporated communities zoned Design Review (DR). None of the four Ladera zoning strings in the county's map layer includes DR. We didn't check which district covers which street, so this guide doesn't tie a district to the Eichler streets. Confirm a parcel's zoning with the county's Planning and Building Department. The state's list of historic resources in San Mateo County has no Ladera entry. This is general information, not legal advice; ask the county before you design a project.
What to check before you buy or remodel
The jurisdiction. Confirm the parcel is in unincorporated Ladera and get its full zoning string, for example R-1 with S-104.
Eichler, cooperative or later house. Pull the permit history and the recorded subdivision map. The county assessor's property maps portal lets you download assessor maps and recorded maps, such as subdivision maps, for free. Compare what they show with the dates in this guide.
The roof and levels. Record the original roof profile and, for a split-level or two-level model, how the levels step with the slope before you plan a reroof or addition.
The envelope. Raising a roof or adding a floor has to fit the district's height limit and daylight plane.
Recorded documents. Ask for the title report and any recorded restrictions. The community association and the recreation district don't issue building permits.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ladera part of Portola Valley?
No. San Mateo LAFCo's 2026 draft review calls Ladera an unincorporated community adjacent to the Town of Portola Valley, and it places the Ladera Recreation District within the town's sphere of influence. County zoning applies, even though mailing addresses read Portola Valley.
Who designed the Ladera Eichlers?
The National Register forms for Green Gables and Greenmeadow say the Ladera subdivision was designed by Jones and Emmons. We didn't find a record that assigns each house to a model or architect, so check the plans and permits for a specific house.
When were the Ladera Eichlers built?
The National Register forms say a journal described the designs in 1950 and documented the completed first phase in November 1951. A published account dates the designs' unveiling to January 1951 and says Jones & Emmons houses stood there by August 1951.
Are the Peninsula Housing Association houses Eichlers?
No. A published history says the cooperative's houses were designed by Joseph Allen Stein and John Funk and built before the association was dissolved, by 1949. Eichler Homes redeveloped part of the site afterward.
Related reading
Green Gables Eichler, Palo Alto: The 1950 Anshen & Allen Tract
San Mateo Highlands Eichler History: The Hillside Tract and the X-100
Eichler Homes Company History: The Builder Behind the Tracts
John Funk, Architect: Bay Region Modern Houses and How to Check One
More guides on this topic: Eichler Neighborhoods & Tract Histories
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Want help confirming whether a Ladera house is an Eichler, or what the county's Ladera districts allow? Call or text the Boyenga Team at Compass at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or contact the Boyenga Team online.
