Dear City Council,
The proposed new apartment buildings destined for the parking lots between Santa Cruz Ave. and Oak Grove Ave. are poorly conceived and will be a disaster for our downtown.
The loss of parking in these lots will result in our retail businesses closing down.
With the exception of school kids walking or biking downtown after school, practically everyone else uses their car when they go downtown. In so doing, they park either in these parking lots or perhaps on either Santa Cruz or one of the side streets. Even now these lots are almost always full with empty spaces hard to find. We need MORE parking downtown (2-3 story garages?), not less.
If these proposed apartment buildings are ever built you can: Say goodbye to Walgreens Pharmacy; say goodbye to Ace Hardware; say goodbye to our several restaurants and cafes; say goodbye to a number of fine retail shops; and while a block away, you can even say goodbye to Trader Joe’s and Draegers. None of these businesses that make up the heart of our downtown will be able to survive without the availability of easy to access parking that now exists.
There are other locations in Menlo Park where this housing can be built (if truly needed). Let’s not make a huge mistake by building them where you now propose and completely change the character of Menlo Park.
Sincerely,
Bruce Ochieano
1795 Stanford Avenue
Menlo Park, CA
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