BRISBANE, incorporated in 1961, teeters between open space and Old West ambiance and the 21st century's demand for more housing and high-tech progress.

Notched into the northern slope of San Bruno mountain, the City of Stars boasts a vigorous community of environmentally-minded residents alongside the sprawling Crocker Industrial Park, annexed in the early 1980s, and the corporate towers of Sierra Point.

Recent single-family homes line the Northeast Ridge of the mountain, while the century-old Guadalupe Valley Quarry grinds out granite fill for Caltrans road work and recycles concrete from construction projects.

Voters in 2006 killed a proposal to build even more housing in the quarry, but developers still plan to convert the mostly vacant Baylands, once a garbage dump and railyard, into an office and retail complex catering to Highway 101 commuters.

http://www.smccd.net/accounts/smccd/
[San Mateo County Community College District]