Dear City Council,
Tonight, the Fire Board will discuss Fire Safety and High-Density Housing. Please see my memo to them on the topic. I plan to attend their Zoom-meeting.
Please let me know if you have questions and/or would like more information.
Lynne
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Lynne Bramlett >
Date: Tue, Jun 21, 2022 at 3:19 PM
Subject: Fire Safety & High Density Housing
To: Bernstein, Chuck >, Rob Silano >, Robert Jones >, Chang Kiraly, Virginia >, Jim McLaughlin >
Cc: Mark Lorenzen >, Lynne E Bramlett (CERT) >, Michelle Kneier >
Dear Fire Board,
Tonight, the Fire Board's agenda includes topic 13: Discuss Fire Safety and High-Density Housing. This important public safety discussion is most timely given the accelerated pace of development in Menlo Park. The pace includes large, multi-story office buildings as part of a "mixed use" project.
Please see the attached three files (2 pages each) with snapshot development details. I carefully put these together based on a community request. I consider them quite accurate and I will again send them to the City Council of Menlo Park. The recent Municipal Service Review on East Palo Alto was prepared in preparation for likely development. The Fire District's perspective on public safety is critical and your voice needed! If you haven't been out there lately, I also invite you to drive down Willow Road to see what is currently going up there and what else might be coming across the street.
The 2020 Community Risk Assessment: Standards of Cover detailed the additional challenges of fighting fires in modern, multi-story buildings and large office spaces. The former Fire Chief detailed some of public safety challenges in his March 5, 2019 Staff Report (Improvements for safety and emergency routes) prepared for a joint Fire Board/City of MP Council meeting. As the former Chief noted, "Almost every document I have found or read does not address these basic public safety considerations and priorities which are needed to balance transportation decisions and methodologies also needed and intended to protect the public and used for common good."
I also cannot ever recall reading about basic public safety considerations in development proposals. The ConnectMenlo program-level EIR (Resolution 6356) allows individual development projects to "tier-off" the program level EIR. This allows new projects to be more rapidly approved because they don't have to consider issues deemed reviewed earlier. I believe that Resolution 6356 needs a review in light of what's known today about public safety issues, including the cumulative impact of dense development in a small area.
Sincerely,
Lynne Bramlett
