Hello,
I have lived in Menlo Park since 2010, and am writing in opposition to the proposal to convert the downtown parking lots into housing, especially given the probable detrimental impact on the downtown businesses and the vibrancy of Menlo Park. Currently, downtown Menlo Park is a bit sleepy, but it is quaint and functional for the residents and visitors. The lots in question service a number of the strongest businesses in Menlo Park, including BowWow Meow, Menlo Park Hardware, Cheeky Monkey, and CoffeeBar. I use these lots often when I am visiting these business, and they are almost always near capacity. These are some of the best businesses in Menlo Park and we should be trying to figure out how to support them and grow businesses around them, not how to bankrupt them by eliminating parking. Calling these lots, which are pieces of critical infrastructure, "surplus land" is misuse of language and is dismissive of the needs of the business owners and residents of Menlo Park that elected City Council.
I also recognize that the city is under pressure from the state to build more housing, and that housing prices make it difficult for teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officers and other critical community members to live in Menlo Park. But I am confident that the City Council can come up with a better alternative to support appropriately priced housing for the Menlo Park community. For example, there is large amount of vacant land adjacent to 84 between Willow and University. A very tall building with ample parking could easily be built there, with easy access to the nearby commercial areas, and an easy route for busses to downtown Menlo Park (including Caltrain), Redwood City, or Palo Alto, Both the Sunset Campus and the USGS campus are ripe for redevelopment, where a thoughtful development of housing, parking and community assets like lighted playing fields could be built, without displacing current infrastructure.
The City Council, as elected officials, have a critical responsibility to support the residents and business owners of Menlo Park and I encourage you to continue to work to find a better solution to solve the housing concerns. Handing over our critical infrastructure to developers with the hope that they will do something useful for us is a bad strategy. While I think redevelopment of the land between El Camino and Caltrain was probably the right thing for Menlo Park, the "promised" bike underpass still has not materialized, and based on what Im seeing I predict it will never materialize. This is likely the same situation we would find ourselves in if we hand over the parking lots to a developer who will certainly prioritize their own interests above those of the residents of Menlo Park. We as residents need you as the City Council to continue to look for solutions that will benefit the community for decades, not simply check a box that the state is trying to force.
I ask you to please vote against designating this land "surplus" and to look for better alternatives to encourage housing.
Thank you,
Nick Webb
