Dear Council Members:
I hope you will consider (preferably an ordinance) to ban developments of housing on existing Menlo Park park land. There are so few places as it is, and while I absolutely understand the need for more affordable housing in the city, I don’t think using parks for this purpose is at all appropriate or serves anyone well. The parks provide a much need place for rest and air and are good for the environment.
I am a condo owner on Sharon Park Drive (for 27 years) and walking to and from the park area where the proposed development would be just seems like a very bad precedent.
As a homeowner and taxpayer, my condo complex has already endured a large office building being built which looms over our complex with lights on day and night, and cuts off natural light and cut out the trees and open land that was there before. How the council approved that is beyond my comprehension. There was nothing between my complex and some land and single residences up the street, so an office building there is just an outrage and totally inappropriate.
Then shortly before that building was constructed, a diesel generator was put in about 75 yards or less from where our property starts and nowhere near the office building it was meant to serve for one company who needed 24-hour computer availability. I always worry if there were a fire what would happen? And these days, it is not an idle worry.
I mention these related issues just to highlight even further how much worse degradaton it would cause to take away open parkland which gives pleasure not only to the residents along Sharon Park Drive, but the other people from the city who enjoy it.
Please, please stop this now—to ensure a better future for all Menlo Park residents.
Thank you,
Dianne Ellsworth
675 Sharon Park Drive
