To: Menlo Park City Council Members
From: Cecilia Ridgeway, 207 Robin Way (Willows neighborhood), Menlo Park
I am writing to strongly oppose approval of the 80 Willows Road development project under discussion. I am aware of the AGs recent ruling but we cannot let things stand at that. With its multiple, huge towers, the 80 Willows Road project is wildly out of scale not only for its specific location at Willow and Middlefield but for the whole surrounding towns of Menlo Park and Palo Alto.
I support new housing development in Menlo Park (including downtown) but the 80 Willows Rd project will not even help much with our housing needs. The number of new jobs the 80 Willows Rd project creates will totally swamp the number of new housing units it creates, making it a net loss for the citys genuine housing problem. Furthermore, it is distant from public transportation and will create untenable traffic problems at an already very busy intersection. It is hard for me to get in and out of my Willows neighborhood now—what will it be like with a whole new mini-city across the road?
I urge the City Council not to approve this project without a completed environmental impact report and to hold a public hearing before any final decisions are made. I believe the City should take further legal action to resist the AGs ruling and the 80s Willow Road project.
I hope the City Council will stand up for we who live in the city and seek a more reasonable and more truly housing-focused project to develop the 80 Willows Road property.
Best regards,
Cecilia Ridgeway
Cecilia L. Ridgeway, Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Emerita
Department of Sociology, Stanford University
450 Jane Stanford Way—Bldg 120, Stanford, CA 94304-2047
Email: ridgeway@stanford.edu
