Atherton, Woodside, and Los Altos Hills are not cities (at least not the way you're thinking). They're relatively small communities full of people who live in large single-family homes on multi-acre lots, often surrounded by a fence or some other privacy-type barrier.

The "character" they want to preserve is not that of an urban center with multi-family housing.

They're absolutely not cities. They're small wealthy villages with a tiny population that exist in rural California.