Council -
The proposed changes to Zoning could easily lead to bigger and taller Office buildings in the middle of Menlo Park, worsening the jobs/housing imbalance, displacing business essential to residential quality of life, and worsening the jobs/housing imbalance. Particularly at risk are the El Camino Real/Downtown Specific Plan area and nearby commercial zones. You cant kick the can down the road again, as the proposed changes in the staff report would do. The State is watching.
If you dont act now, more imbalanced development could continue to occur, causing the city to fail audits of progress.The proposed changes ignore the reality that
* When total FAR is increased, the allowable Office square footage also increases.
* The current ratio of Office allowed (50%) is inherently imbalanced when Office is maximized because of worker densities in current business practices (50-150 SF/worker). Office should be 25% or less FAR relative to housing.
* Projects can even be all-Office, even in mixed use zoning districts. Thats right -- no housing at all is required at either the Base or Bonus levels.
* Along nearly all of the El Camino corridor and on Downtown side streets (north-south and east-west), there are not requirements to retain retail, restaurants, or community-serving uses or to add more to support a growing population
* A "Builders Remedy" would be particularly bad because the City lacks objective standards to help protect access to sunlight, privacy, noise, etc. in the form of improved daylight plane, incentivizing deeper setbacks for ADUs and state-mandated multi-family structures.
This is simply bad planning. The Housing Element Update is a major change, and the impacts on other aspects of the General Plan have to be addressed NOW.
You must address these issues with the current zoning ordinance update now, not sometime later.
* Developers, businesses and residents need to know what the rules are and that they will lead to balanced development that produces and protects what the community needs and wants, not just more housing.
* There are known issues with the current zoning, that allows more Office (jobs) than can be met with new housing when a developer maximizes Office. And new jobs are not linked to new housing for the workers.
* The current lack of protections for needed businesses and services would affect the quality of life, worsen the environment and lower city revenues when residents and others have to travel and patronize businesses in other cities to support their daily lives. Some of the largest "opportunity sites" currently are where residents and.visitors shop, dine, bank, etc. (think Big 5 shopping center, Trader Joes, Safeway shopping center, All of those businesses could be replaced by Offices under current zoning rules.
The final submission of the HEU to the State would be strengthened if Menlo Park were able to say the City
* Has changed the ratio of allowed Office so that mixed use projects improve the jobs/housing ratio rather than continue imbalanced growth possible under current rules
* Has linked housing and jobs growth to do our Citys part in establishing a better jobs/housing balance
* Has established minimum requirements in mixed use districts for housing and services, making more plausible the ability to meet RHNA
I believe that the City could say in its January Housing Element Update submission that updates to the Land Use Element and Zoning Ordinance are underway to address the issues above. A Council subcommittee or a small task force of volunteers from the community should be launched to identify suitable zoning changes to address the above issues and objective standards.
Authorize that action tonight.
Patti Fry
former Menlo Park Planning Commissioner
former Residential Review Task Force member
former Commercial Zoning Ordinance Update task force member
