City Council Members,
We are joining the chorus of residents respectfully requesting a delay on any decision to move forward with housing on plazas 1-3 until the city residents can weigh in on this proposal.
This proposal has been kept secret from the residents in order to ram it through and that is NOT ACCEPTABLE!!
As a reminder, when the City developed the Downtown/El Camino plan, they hired a traffic consulting firm.
Their suggestion was Plaza 3 was the only good alternative for a parking garage. Plaza 1 was rejected because it could potentially block traffic on El Camino. Plaza 2 was too small for a garage. Plazas 4-7 required building over a side street and the traffic flow onto Menlo Ave (even then was backed up) would make the proposal untenable.
This proposal will destroy downtown as businesses will no be able to survive with limited parking alternatives. What about the property owners who paid to develop the parking lots and were granted access to the lots when the City created downtown in the late 1940s? Isnt this a grandfathered issue?
Home values will go down due to lack of services the community depends on from hardware store to restaurants. These are all small businesses.
The community deserves a say in this proposal just as numerous community workshops were held in working up the successful plan for the
Downtown/El Camino Plan.
If this proposal passes, the community will rise up in revolt! Count on it!
Respectfully,
Timothy and JoAnn Johnston
1000 Creek Drive
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Sent from my iPhone
