Dear City Council: Whilethe City Council is discussing the Stanford Middle Plaza project, I think it isincumbent on the Council to negotiate with Stanford to get the best deal it canfor our city and the Menlo Park residents. From what has been reported the Stanford'sproposed agreement does not meet the basic requirement for such largedevelopment. For instance, the reports show that the proposed agreement doesnot meet Stanford's own traffic reduction and monitoring standards in SantaClara County, nor does it meet Stanford’s own environmental sustainabilitystandards on campus. Stanford by the current agreement also does not comparewith other private universities such as Harvard and Yale in the amount of theirpayment to their host cities in lieu of taxes. Granted that the proposeddevelopment is not on Stanford campus per se, nor Menlo Park is Stanford’s hostcity. (In fact, neither Palo Alto is Stanford’s host city, as the university islocated in Stanford, CA.) Nevertheless, the proposed development is on Stanfordland in Menlo Park, therefore it should be considered a university-relatedproject and the land a part of the campus. We hope the City Council, in itsnegotiation with Stanford, will ensure that Stanford meets the above mentionedstandards at least, if not exceeding them. Thankyou for your attention. Sincerely, EugeneW. Wu and Nadine L. Wu 721Elizabeth Lane MenloPark, CA 94025 Received on Tue Sep 26 2017 - 13:44:24 PDT
