Hello Council member,
I have lived in Menlo Park for 26 years, in the Willows and Menlo Oaks
neighborhoods, which are close to the proposed 80 Willow road development.
I had a business at 68 Willow road, and my employees complained constantly
about the traffic on Willow road to get to hwy 101 after work, which
sometimes took half an hour or more to go 1 mile.
Adding 20-70% more traffic during commute and school hours will make this
much more arduous and cause dangerous backups on the freeway into Menlo
Park in the afternoons.
Furthermore, the proposal to build 3 large towers will damage the entire
feel of the neighborhood. If these were built out near Meta HQ on the
baylands, it would make more sense, and there would be direct commuter
access to main roads and freeways. Menlo Park will still get the tax
revenue.
I cannot imagine the chaos that 2 years of construction of absurdly high
towers would wreak on traffic and emergency services in the local area.
Perhaps if 4 story low income housing were built, it would ease our housing
crisis and not have such an impact on traffic.
I understand that the Russian owner of the land, the son of a minister in
the Russian government, cannot afford such a project without the upside of
600 $1M apartments for the rich. Its not a good look to have this
controversial project driven by a person who was initially declined the
loan to buy the property from Sunset due to sanctions and money laundering
concerns.
I look forward to your thoughts.
David Jevans
232 Robin Way, Menlo Park
davejevans@gmail.com
+1 650-996-2142
