September 12, 2025
To: Mayor Combs, City Council Members and City Manager Justin Murphy, and
Senator Josh Becker
*IMAGINE AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT THAT DOES NO HARM*
Imagine meeting or exceeding our affordable housing requirement numbers
without hurting Menlo Park downtown businesses and the employees’
livelihoods. Imagine affordable housing provided as an integrated and
inclusionary community.
As of September 12, 2025 and based on stated project BMR units on the City
of Menlo Park website about 708 BMR units out of 5,172 housing and office
units are currently “Approved”, “Under Construction” or in the “Pipeline”.
These numbers do not come close enough to the number of housing units
required for 1) very low-income 638 units, 2) low income 374 units, 3)
moderate income level 451 units, and 4) above moderate 1,237 units for a
total of 2,502 units needing to be fulfilled by 2031 (see the City of Menlo
Park 2022-2024 Annual Progress Reports).
As a long time Menlo Park resident, I can imagine affordable housing for an
integrated, diverse community without destroying the livelihoods of
hundreds of business owners and their employees.
I am asking the Menlo Park City Council and the City Manager to;
1. Work with developers of Parkline and USGS to decrease office space
and increase an integrated housing community that includes and specifically
addresses very low-income and low-income affordable housing units, not just
“BMR” units.
2. Provide incentives to these developers to increase affordable
housing.
3. Include additional property offerings to developers such as a)
Bohannon Park 25 acres, b) 333 Burgess Drive 2.35 acres, c) 1283 Willow
Road .66 acres, and d) 2400 Branner Drive 2.9 acres to name a few.
4. Explore additional sites where affordable housing can take place
that would not hurt or destroy current business and their livelihoods, such
as a) Quandrus at 2480 Sand Hill Road estimated 60 market rate or 200 if
100% affordable, b) 1100 Alma Street estimated 53 housing units or up to
106 if 100% affordable, c) Several Bohannon Drive office/warehouse parcels
estimated housing not yet determined, d) Roughly 70 parcels identified
across the city as suitable for housing through rezoning or redevelopment,
including city-owned lots, commercial corridors, and institutional lands-
many not yet proposed, but designated for potential future housing.
5. Ease requirements to rezone office spaces such as the Bohannon
Industrial Park which has been offered for housing by Mr. David Bohannon in
a 2022 letter to the City Council.
None of these aforementioned sites hurt our Menlo Park Downtown, its
businesses and its many employees. Moving to development of these
alternative sites can bring peace to our community by bringing people
together on plans that do no harm to others. Imagine moving forward in
harmony as a community.
