To: Menlo Park City Council
From: Richard Heintze/ Concerned Resident
Date: September 25, 2026
Dear Mayor Nash and Members of the City Council,
We am writing to express my strong objection to the N17 Development proposal, known as "Willow Park," planned for 80 Willow Road (the former Sunset Magazine site).
I believe the council is doing everything it can to support residents of Menlo Park and I support continued push back against N17, including support to fight any lawsuit N17 might bring to threaten our community.
While I recognize the regional need for housing, this project is completely wrong for our community [18025564]. Proposing towers up to 30 to nearly 40 stories tall (reaching 458 feet) is completely out of scale for Menlo Park. It threatens to turn a quiet, low-rise suburban corridor into an overbuilt mini-city.
I urge the City Council to stand firm against this inappropriate development for the following key reasons:
• Severe Traffic Gridlock: Willow Road is already a heavily congested artery connecting to Highway 101 and the Dumbarton Bridge. Adding thousands of daily car trips from high-rise residential, commercial, hotel, and office spaces will choke local traffic and make everyday travel miserable for nearby neighborhoods.
• Incompatible Scale: Buildings towering over 400 feet tall do not belong in Menlo Park. They completely overwhelm the Linfield Oaks and Willows neighborhoods and ignore local community standards.
• Destruction of Local History: The historic former Sunset Magazine headquarters is listed in the California Register of Historical Resources. Demolishing it for out-of-scale skyscrapers erases an irreplaceable piece of Menlo Parks identity.
• Questionable Intent and Overreach: The developer’s use of extreme density measures and builder’s remedy maneuvers—alongside concerning foreign ownership ties—places an unfair infrastructure burden on our residents while bypassing common-sense local planning. I stand with local groups like Menlo Forward in saying "Yes to affordable housing, but no to mega-towers"
Please continue to use every legal tool and resource available to push back against this overreaching proposal [18025564].
Thank you for your time, leadership, and dedication to protecting the character and safety of Menlo Park.
Sincerely,
Richard Heintze
323 Oak Court / The Willows
Menlo Park, CA 94025
