Dear Mayor Nash and Council Members,
I oppose the intimidation and strong arming of the Menlo Park council by Attorney General Bonta who with the developer wants to force an imprudent and hasty decision concerning 80 Willow Road formally the home of Sunset Magazine.
Your Housing Element was thwarted by the HCD who delayed its approval. The same occurred in Palo Alto’s process with obstructions allowing for Builders Remedy applications to be submitted. The executive director of Palo Alto Forward admits that the city was lobbied by them and that they had inundated the HCD with emails to purposefully delay Palo Alto’s Housing Element approval. This tactic provided for Builders Remedy projects to be submitted. The Palo Alto council and staff were frustrated by this and acknowledged such as reported in the Palo Alto Weekly.
I am a native Palo Altan with the majority of my doctors in the Menlo Clinic on Crane Street and Middlefield Road. I enjoy going to Menlo Park’s restaurants and cafés including La Stanza, Café Borrone and Colette. I worked for several years as a teacher in Menlo Park.
I had a medical event where the Menlo Park police came to my assistance. A young man working the register at the Chevron station assisted me after I told him I could not remember my phone number. He said that I should speak with the police and when I spoke to the officer he said because of my memory issue he would call EMS. It turned out to be a benign brain tumor a meningioma. I will never forget the kindness of the young man at the station, the police and EMS who got me to the hospital.
We all know that traffic will be blocked should this behemoth 80 Willow Road development be allowed to be built. It is totally out of scale with the environs of Palo Alto and Menlo Park. First responders will be blocked including fire, EMS and police. I wonder what kind of delays would I or others experience should this monstrous project be built?
Why would this developer balk at having an EIR? The San Francisquito Creek is geologically critical in both Menlo Park and Palo Alto. Now with a Godzilla El Niño approaching it is imperative that an EIR be conducted.
Sunset Magazine means a lot to many not just here but in the US. The Lanes’ publication covers are included in exhibitions in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. To construct towers that would be better suited to Las Vegas in Menlo Park is outrageous. The developer was practically inconsolable when he learned that the Sunset property 80 Willow Road designed by architect Cliff May with landscaped design by Thomas Dolliver Church received historic register eligibility and automatic listing on the California Register of Historical Resources.
I urge you to reject Attorney General Bonta’s letter where he attempts to use his power to sway the council in favor of the developer.
Respectfully,
Ann Lafargue Balin
Palo Alto, California
