November 17, 2025
*RE: 6th Cycle 2023-2031 Housing Element City of Menlo Park (Adopted
January 31, 2023 – Resolution No. 6809)*
Dear Honorable Mayor Combs, City Council Members, and City Manager, Justin
Murphy:
I implore the four Council Members to follow Mayor Combs example and give
up their intractable position regarding housing in the downtown parking
lots.
My rainy-day reading has taken me to a thorough reading of the above
referenced 6th Cycle 2023-2031 Housing Element.
The attached TABLE references excerpts from the above referenced 6th Cycle
2023-2031 Housing Element 1) page number(s) and 2) verbatim EXCERPTS from
the 6TH CYCLE 2023-2031 HOUSING ELEMENT document. Added are 1) *COMMENTS*
regarding discrimination, bias or false statements and 2) a column
*CATEGORIZING* the resulting behavior.
Also attached is a spreadsheet of the pages 7-7 and 7-8 from the above
referenced document and my calculations of the percentage of income-based
housing presented on those pages.
There are some very serious legal and financial ramifications for the City
of Menlo Park that will result should the City Council continue on this
path of destruction for Menlo Park’s downtown district.
The attached table details my assessment of these legal pitfalls should the
City Council refuse to act upon repeated suggestions by the community to
seriously move to alternative housing locations from the downtown parking
lots.
Honestly, I would not want to live in any of the downtown parking lots and
would much prefer a home in one of the City owned 16 parks including
Burgess Park. I would hope the comfort, safety and an enjoyable setting for
the housing projects would be taken into consideration.
Enjoy your upcoming Thanksgiving holiday,
Rubye
