Hello -
It sounds like there will be a meeting on Saturday to set priorities for activities of the Menlo Park city council.
I would like to request the city of Menlo Park prioritize the annexation of the triangular parcel of land sitting between Alameda, Sharon, and Santa Cruz. We have been making this request for around a decade, and many of us paid substantial money to have some of the groundwork done to get the annexation process started. Many of us remain concerned that leaving this fully encircled unincorporated area creates numerous hazards to the community.
Here’s a list of the reasons I’m hoping you consider in prioritizing the annexation:
1) Traffic safety - since Santa Cruz and Alameda in the annexation area have County on one side and Menlo Park City policing the other side, there is no integrated strategy. We’ve been documenting traffic accidents, and there are a lot of them. The 2 areas that are of particular concern are (1) Oakdell / Santa Cruz / Sharon, (2) Sharon / Alameda, (3) Alameda / Santa Cruz bifurcation. I was nearly hit walking across Santa Cruz (near Sharon) in the crosswalk; I’m sure others have had similar experiences. We’ve taken many photos of accidents there over the past years. In fact, these border zones between county and city are particularly hazardous and I know of several deaths that have happened at border zones like these in the past decade.
2) Safe Routes to School - A subtopic under traffic safety is the safety of our children for walking to school. Sidewalks were successfully installed on the portion of Sharon leading up to La Entrada, but often children have to walk in dangerous places in the unincorporated zone to make it to those sidewalks.
3) Police access - neighbors have found the sheriff to be less than responsive to responding to calls. It’s silly that we have a great Menlo Park police force nearby but then must wait for the sherif to respond.
4) Preserving the look and feel of the neighborhood - the country has been very apt to allow for changing the rules to allow subdivision of lots. We’ve lost a lot of trees in the process.
5) Road quality - there is poor coordination of road maintenance at the border zones. In fact, sometimes I’ve asked county road maintenance crews why a pothole is not repaired and they have said it is in the city zone. I’ve then asked city people the same thing, and they believe the same pothole is the responsibility of the county.
6) It just makes sense - we’re surrounded on 3 sides by Menlo Park City, Menlo Park City makes decisions regarding our schools, our traffic, etc , yet being part of unincorporated Menlo Park, we are not allowed to vote for the decision makers that strongly influence our neighborhood.
Thank you for your consideration.
Best,
Neil
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Neil C. Barman, M.D.
neilbarman@gmail.com
mobile: +1.650.248.8387
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