East Palo Alto's battle to achieve cityhood was a long and tumultuous one. Incorporation was proposed as early as 1931 and again four years later. The idea was revived in 1951. A study was done by the Ravenswood-Willow Boosters, which voted 38-29 against incorporation amid charges the meeting was packed with anti-city members.
In the fall of 1953 civic leaders formed a committee to study incorporation. The effort died in early 1954, following a near riot of 400 people at a meeting at Brentwood School. In the summer of 1958 residents living west of Bayshore attempted to incorporate themselves into a city to be called Woodland Oaks. At the same time an effort was made to incorporate the east side into Menlo Park. Both attempts failed. In 1981 the area west of Bayshore again applied for annexation to Menlo Park and was denied.
Residents, both pro and con, were deeply divided on the issue. But supporters of incorporation persisted, arguing that incorporation offered the promise of:
A consultant's draft report, prepared for the county in 1980, stated incorporation was not economically feasible and endorsed annexation to Menlo Park. Its findings were contested by the municipal government.
The final report said incorporation, under certain conditions, would best fulfill the town's economic and community development needs. "Incorporation will focus the authority, the responsibility, and the tools that are currently available to accomplish community development in a single, politically visible entity - the new City Council."
Pro-city supporters filed papers in the spring of 1981, seeking to put the issue on the November ballot. This final, successful effort to incorporate would not be resolved for six years.
The county delayed an election until studies could be completed. In 1982 supervisors rejected, and then agreed to, an April election. A coalition against incorporation filed a legal challenge which was dismissed.
In order for incorporation to succeed, four related measures on the ballot had to be approved. One, a proposal to dissolve the East Palo Alto Sanitary District, lost by 41 votes. It was defeated by sanitary district voters who lived in Menlo Park and would not have been affected by incorporation.
A new petition for incorporation was filed. This time a single measure was put on the June 1983 ballot, and dissolution of the sanitary district was not a condition. Another lawsuit failed to stop the election.
Incorporation was approved by 15 votes: 1,782 to 1,767. East Palo Alto officially became a city on July 1, 1983.
Another legal challenge ensued, this one claiming that up to 300 absentee ballots, which tipped the balance of the election, were cast illegally. The county Superior Court invalidated only eight votes - five for and three against incorporation. The measure still won by 13 votes.
An appeal was filed, and in the fall of 1984 the courts tossed out some 100 absentee ballots. They were unanimously reinstated after another appeal brought the case before the state Supreme Court. The decision was appealed again, this time to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1987 it declined to review the case, ending all further legal challenges.
Political forces on both sides of the issue remained deeply divided, and talk of disincorporation periodically resurfaces.