Dear City Council,
I encourage you to reevaluate adding housing to the main library as part of the redevelopment. As we all know, utilizing city
owned property is the least expensive way to make sure affordable housing is disbursed throughout the city and close to transit
and services.
During the community meetings people were overall supportive of affordable housing as part of the redevelopment. There may have
been more public support if Staff would have been prepared to factually answer questions regarding affordable housing funding. As
illustrated in the minutes, the facilitators were not able to answer questions but voiced negative impacts of building housing
on-site for example, housing would slow down the project, no easy design to position on the campus, traffic and common space.
Staff members in the audience did not offer to educate the public. I'm disappointed the city wasn't prepared for the foreseeable
questions.
Menlo Park is in a position to set a standard for neighboring cities by redesigning the civic center to include affordable
housing. Hopefully you won't let opportunity pass to make an impact on the the quality of many lives because you're afraid to slow
down and do your due diligence by studying all possible outcomes.
It would be a shame to follow staff's recommendation to dismiss the idea of housing based on their assessment that in short, it
would be too much work.
Kindest,Michele Tate
