To whom it may concern,
I am writing in my disbelief and total opposition to the proposal for a new library to be built on a new Alma Site.It is very
short sited and completely against everything I and my fellow friends and residents of Menlo Park desire for this community. We,
as a city, should never discuss or propose building housing to be added on town and community land. Land is very valuable - I am
not referring to the dollar value of land but instead the requirement to maintain all existing open land and community/town
property for usage as open, usable green land to be enjoyed by all without any housing.
When I heard that the city was thinking of adding housing on existing parcels of city land, I was furious - and then I heard it
was to be at Burgess park which is already maxed out on building square footage, and now I am in complete shock.
The city needs to immediately abandon this thought/idea as it is an injustice to the many adults and children that need and
utilize the existing available land. People from all over the Bay Area come and enjoy the many offerings that the land provides -
birthday parties, reading a book under the sun, tennis, basketball, walks, baseball, swimming, and simply enjoying the open space
to get away from the hectic pace and the cold isolation of the large amount of concrete. As this city continues to grow, the need
for open green land has increased in need. Our society needs open land to be able to enjoy some peace, socialize with others, and
enjoy the beautiful California weather outside of buildings. The amount of people that use Burgess park continues to increase year
over year and we must maintain every square foot of open land for the masses. It would be a complete injustice. This proposal must
be denied immediately.
Please take action now to save our community land - no more buildings and for sure no housing on our precious community land.
Retain/utilize the current parcel of land without using any more land for the library. Utilize the existing parcel of land.
Thank you for taking immediate action to deny both aspects of the proposal - deny the housing proposal and abandon moving to the
Laurel Street site.
Whenever I go to San Fran or NYC in particular, I continue to applaud all of the forward thinking people who created and preserved
Central Park and Golden Gate park. Please continue to keep existing community land with no housing - and instead of building,
create more enlarged open spaces whenever you allow developers to build new structures here in Menlo Park. I am saddened whenever
developers receive approval to build huge structures and the city allows them to retain very small, inadequate postage card sized
open community land. Open land is priceless but yet the developers and the city only looks at the value opportunity costs - once
we have only concrete who will want to live in this town with its tree lined streets but yet limited open space.
Thank you for your time,Veneta Kanelakos, a concerned Menlo Park resident
