To: Mayor Betsy Nash, Vice-mayor Jennifer Wise, and team:
As a long-time resident of Menlo Park, and a former employee
of Lane Publishing Company (as Garden Editor of Sunset Magazine),
when it was based at 80 Willow Road in this city, I am suggesting that the following points
be considered when you all decide the fate of that former campus.
1. CALIFORNIA’S LONG HISTORY OF DROUGHTS. Among them: the five-year drought
of 2012-2016. Called “the “hottest and longest in California’s recorded history”
by the DWR (the Department of Water and Power), it caused the death of millions of trees.
How will such a large building impact water supplies when the next drought occurs?
2. SAN FRANCISQUITO CREEK. Called a “rare… undeveloped riparian oasis”
by the American Rivers organization, it is perhaps the only San Francisco Bay Stream
not confined to a concrete channel. Winding its way past the south and west sides
of the 80 Willow campus after occasional winter rains, it supports
the last of the native ocean-going steelhead trout during their migrations.
And the native vegetation along its banks supports bird populations that are
losing habitats due to increasing urbanization.
3. NEIGHBORHOODS, including single family homes, border the south and west sides
of the of the Sunset property. How will they be impacted, by building process and by
increased traffic on Willow and Middlefield Roads?
Respectfully,
Kathleen Brenzel
