Dear Menlo Park City Council:
While I remain in full support of the Willow Village project moving forward, I would be remiss not to mention some concerns over how development is being managed in the City of Menlo Park. These concerns should come as no surprise as I and others in the community have been raising the same concern for many years. I will yet again state the concern.
We as a city are surrounded by evidence. We have strong evidence of growth, development, and improvement. The majority of recent growth is taking place in District 1. The windfall economic resources from increased property tax revenue, development impact fees, transient occupancy taxes and other strategically negotiated benefits are undergirding the reality that Menlo Park will be fiscally sound. The larger question that still looms is whether we will be fiscally responsible and end what I see as an ongoing pattern of abuse. As of this date, this pattern of abuse remains systemic to how we handle the revenues generated and benefits negotiated with respect to development and specifically the development occurring in District 1 of Menlo Park. For the purposes of this letter the term “we” is inclusive, it represents all parties involved. We can be considered as the City of Menlo Park, the elected officials, the developers and the residents in all districts of our city.
It has been my observation that despite the multiple millions of square feet of development, and billions of dollars of land value that have been and will be created in District 1, the residential neighborhood that is most impacted, Belle Haven, remains the least improved. Significant capital improvements in the form of undergrounding of utilities on major residential streets, new sidewalks, streetlights and intentional landscaping in public areas continue to elude the community. Is District 1 just a victim of the ultimate bait and switch scheme? Is it really that hard to complete such improvements in District 1? Other cities surrounding us are doing it every day.
This letter is not to point the blame at any individual person or entity because I believe we are all complicit to varying degrees through our action or inaction, through our knowledge or ignorance, through our care or disregard. We are all doing things to improve our city and putting forth our best efforts on a daily basis, but we need to be mature and also face the areas where we are falling short.
The increased revenues have been flowing for years. Even with a generous allowance for the lag time common to public institutions, we are woefully slow. We are so slow that it seems significant improvements will never happen in the residential area of District 1. If you wish to see the evidence, I encourage you you to travel down Chilco Street. The portion of Chilco that borders the Meta Campus is pristine, well designed and a true asset. As soon as you cross the proverbial and literal train tracks to enter the residential portion of the Belle Haven neighborhood, the absence of modernization, lack of improvements and blight are on full display. Yes there are lists of community benefits and committees tasked with procuring such lists, but if we are honest, many of the capital improvements should have already happened in the neighborhood given the amount of development that has already occurred.
It is clear that our region is experiencing an economic shift. Companies are being forced to make some tough decisions about how they will conduct business moving forward. It would be naïve to think that such economic changes are not affecting the specifications of the Willow Village project. I am in favor of the project moving forward. The project will provide many of the services and amenities that make a community livable and sustainable. It will also provide the revenue that keeps a city viable. The proposed project is designed in such a way that we will be proud of yet another architectural gem being added to District 1.
My only concern with this project is the same concern generated by the other architectural gems that have recently been revealed. When will Belle Haven receive the attention it needs? When an area that has been impacted to an extreme continues to be neglected, ignored and abused, the other areas or entities can also be adversely affected. Perhaps the Willow Village project presents itself as the perfect opportunity to include the aforementioned Belle Haven capital improvements in the development agreement. In business all things are negotiable, when it comes to development negotiation is just the beginning of what is possible. To date those capital improvements have not manifested in the residential neighborhood. If they cannot happen with the largest singular project in District 1 then this whole development process is proving to be something other than was presented to the people.
We the collective, have allowed both the good and the shameful parts of development in District 1. We the collective can also fix it. If we follow the money can we handle the truth? Sometimes the truth hurts. The truth can even upend our comfortable realities. While considering the truth, perhaps we can fix the problem and then reflect on how we will improve the process for future projects. We may be able to provide future generations an example of how to fix what is broken while continuing to build. We cannot however continue to ignore the obvious.
Submitted with the hope that we right what is wrong before it is too late.
Sheryl Bims
Menlo Park Resident
