The Walnut Grove Eichler tract in Palo Alto is a small, early one. The city's 2018 Eichler design guidelines list Walnut Grove as built in 1953–1954, credit it to both Anshen & Allen and Jones & Emmons, and count 30 lots. Its larger place in the record is zoning. In 1992 it became the first neighborhood in Palo Alto to get a single-story overlay.
This post walks through what public records say about the tract and the overlay, and why the two don't match: the overlay covers 96 lots, about three times the tract's count. Our sources are the guidelines, two 2015 city staff reports, the city's parcel map and the county's index of recorded maps. Where they leave gaps, we say so. For homes across the city, see our Palo Alto mid-century modern page.
What the city's records say about the tract
The guidelines' table of Palo Alto Eichler tracts gives Walnut Grove three facts: 1953–1954, Anshen & Allen and Jones & Emmons, and 30 lots. A footnote says the lot counts come from city GIS files and don't necessarily match the number of homes. On the guidelines' citywide map, Walnut Grove is tract number 10, drawn near the Alma Street end of East Charleston Road, across the road from the Fairmeadow circles. The city's zoning maps put that corner between Alma Street and Adobe Creek, with Greenmeadow on the far side of the creek.
The two-firm credit fits the guidelines' history, which says Eichler hired Jones & Emmons soon after the firm's 1950 founding to add designs to Anshen & Allen's. In the city's table, Walnut Grove is the earliest tract credited to Jones & Emmons by the firm's name. Fairmeadow, which started in 1951, is credited to A. Quincy Jones himself, and the first two Channing Park tracts to Anshen & Allen and Jones. We found no tract map or permit set that names Walnut Grove's architects directly, and no record that splits the 30 lots between the two firms.
The county's online index of recorded maps covers about 1850 to 1957, with some volumes missing. It has no map titled Walnut Grove. It does list Tract No. 1128, "The Meadows Unit No. 1," surveyed in January 1953 and recorded March 16, 1953. Its streets include Charleston Road, Carlson Court and Ely Place, plus an Oliver Place that we didn't find in the city's parcel data in November 2026. The index names a title company as owner and doesn't name a builder, so we can't say whether that map covers the Eichler lots.
Palo Alto's first single-story overlay, 1992
A June 2015 city staff report gives the start of the story in one sentence. In July 1992 the City Council adopted a single-story height combining district (Ordinances 4100 and 4101) as part of the zoning ordinance and applied it to the Walnut Grove neighborhood. The city’s 2015 staff report gives the date as July 13, 1992; the City Clerk’s ordinance list shows both ordinances passed on July 27, 1992. The report added that the rules effectively preclude building two-story homes inside the boundary. You can read it in the city's June 29, 2015 staff report.
In 2005 the Council revised the zoning chapter (Ordinance 4869) and added criteria for new overlays. By mid-2015, thirteen neighborhoods had applied and twelve overlay zones had been adopted, some of them touching, for 846 lots in all. The one application the city didn't approve came from across Charleston Road: Fairmeadow, for a small part of one of its circles.
The report's list puts Walnut Grove first, at 96 lots under Ordinance 4100. Staff said it had found lot counts that differed between earlier reports, so the list shows lots as they stood in 2015. We couldn't open the 1992 ordinances themselves. The Municipal Code's ordinance list, read in November 2026, describes Ordinance 4101 as adding Chapter 18.13, the single-story height combining district regulations (later repealed by Ordinance 4869), and lists Ordinance 4100 only as a rezoning. So the district itself dates from that 1992 action, but we can't say how Ordinance 4100 described the boundary.
Why the overlay is bigger than the tract
Thirty lots in the tract table, 96 in the overlay list. The city's parcel map, which we read in November 2026, shows where the difference sits. On the Alma Street side of Adobe Creek, we counted 95 parcels whose zoning carries the "(S)" suffix:
R-1 (8000)(S) on Mumford Place, Dixon Place, part of Ely Place and a few East Charleston Road lots: 33 parcels, with recorded lot sizes from about 7,070 to 9,600 square feet.
R-1 (7000)(S) on Duncan Place, Carlson Court, more of Ely Place and a longer run of East Charleston Road: 62 parcels, with recorded lot sizes from about 6,510 to 10,090 square feet.
The number in each zone name is a minimum lot size. The 2015 Los Arboles report explains it this way: plain R-1 requires 6,000 square feet and R-1 (7000) requires 7,000.
By our count, the parcel map gives a build year of 1953 or 1954 for 80 of the 95 parcels. Five more show 1952, 1955 or 1956, and ten show later years, from 1961 to 2025. A later year can mean a replacement house, but the map alone doesn't say. All 95 show a historic status of "none." Of the 95, 94 are in flood zone X; one lot beside the creek is listed as X plus a creek code. And 75 list a 17-foot height limit; for the other 20, the map says a creek, a flag-lot shape or an easement keeps it from assessing one.
So the overlay covers a block of houses largely built in the same two years, of which the city's table counts 30 as the Eichler tract. The records we found don't say which 30. The guidelines' map points the same way: its overlay shading reaches past the outline it draws for tract 10.
Two cautions on our count. First, the same R-1 (7000)(S) zoning continues across Adobe Creek, so the zoning map alone doesn't show where the 1992 boundary ran. Our count stops at the creek and lands close to the city's 96, but treat it as an estimate. One check supports the creek line: by our count, the overlay parcels across the creek, from the East Charleston Road lots through Greenmeadow's own streets, total 276, matching the 249 and 27 lots the 2015 list gives Green Meadows I and II and Green Meadows III. Second, not every lot nearby is in the overlay. Part of Ely Place and a stretch of East Charleston Road nearer Alma carry plain R-1 (8000) zoning, and the parcel map dates the Ely Place houses there to 1960–1962.
What the overlay means for these lots
The 2015 report attached the code text then in force, a 2007 printing of Municipal Code section 18.12.100. The 2018 guidelines describe the same height and floor limits. Under that text:
Houses may be no taller than 17 feet, measured to the roof peak. The code raises that limit a little in special flood hazard areas, but the parcel map puts nearly all these lots in zone X, which isn't one.
A house may have only one habitable floor. Lofts and mezzanines count if they have more than five feet from floor to roof. Basements don't count, and neither do attics with no stair.
Removing an overlay takes signatures from 70 percent of the included properties, deed restrictions or not, and then a rezoning.
A November 2015 city staff report adds two points. Existing two-story homes and homes over 17 feet become non-complying facilities under Chapter 18.70, and staff told the planning commission that existing two-story homes may remain. And the overlay doesn't ensure that Eichler-designed homes are kept, because a new one-story house gets no discretionary design review. Our single-story overlay guide covers how overlays are added and removed in three cities.
This is general information, not legal advice. Codes change, so check the current Municipal Code and talk with the City of Palo Alto planning division before you design anything.
Reading a house in Walnut Grove
Because the overlay and the tract don't line up, an "(S)" on a parcel tells you about zoning, not about who built the house. To judge whether a house is one of the 30, start with the house itself: post-and-beam framing on a slab, one low story, little glass to the street and walls of glass at the rear. Our guide on how to tell if a house is an Eichler walks through the signs.
Then check the paper trail. Ask the city for the building permit history, and look for any CC&Rs. The guidelines say that all Eichler tracts likely had CC&Rs at first, but many have been forgotten. They add that the city doesn't enforce CC&Rs, though residents may.
Frequently asked questions
Is Walnut Grove an Eichler neighborhood?
The city's guidelines list Walnut Grove as a 1953–1954 Eichler tract of 30 lots. The overlay around it covers 96 lots, and 80 of the 95 we counted on the parcel map date to those same years. The records we found don't say which ones are Eichlers. For a given house, look at the design and the permit history.
Can I add a second story in Walnut Grove?
The overlay limits homes to one habitable floor and 17 feet. As of November 2026, Municipal Code section 18.12.100 still says removing an overlay takes signatures from 70 percent of the included properties, and the request then goes through the city's rezoning process. Check the current rules with the planning division.
Who designed the Walnut Grove Eichlers?
The guidelines credit both Anshen & Allen and Jones & Emmons. We found no record that says which firm designed which houses.
Is Walnut Grove in a flood zone?
The city's parcel map puts 94 of the 95 overlay parcels we counted in flood zone X, which FEMA describes as moderate or minimal flood hazard. The other, beside Adobe Creek, is listed as X plus a creek code. Flood maps change, so get a current parcel report before you buy or build.
Related reading
Fairmeadow Eichler Tract: The Story of Palo Alto's Circle Streets
Greenmeadow Eichler History: Palo Alto's Jones & Emmons Tract
Channing Park Eichler, Palo Alto: The 1951–52 Tracts and Their Overlay
More guides on this topic: Eichler Neighborhoods & Tract Histories
Want help checking a Walnut Grove house's history, zoning or permits? Call or text the Boyenga Team at Compass at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or contact the Boyenga Team online.
