I am a 28 year Menlo Park resident who moved from a 5th floor downtown Palo Alto mixed use building. I also lived in a downtown Burlingame apartment building before Palo Alto. Downtown MP remains smaller than both and it is even sleepier now with a growing number of closed / empty storefronts (by contrast over 700 active businesses in downtown Palo Alto). While downtown Menlo Park slept, Burlingame also expanded its downtown. Its truly sad to see "for lease" signs on small Menlo Park retail shops backed by half-empty asphalt lots cracked by roots winding up to an occasional lonely tree.
We should learn from our neighboring cities examples. Burlingame, Palo Alto, Redwood City and San Carlos have all built affordable housing downtown without an increase in crime rates -- despite some fears at the time (crime has gone down since Alma housing went up).
Since the Great Recession, similarly sized downtowns in Los Altos, San Carlos and Burlingame all have surpassed Menlo Parks because they built UP their "critical mass" downtowns with more residents, more dining and more entertainment options that Amazon, Door Dash and NetFlix cannot kill.
I am pleased to see multifamily housing developers with local downtown experience in Belmont (Firehouse Square), Burlingame (the Villages), San Carlos (Wheeler Plaza) and even Menlo Park (Springline) submit RFQs. I particularly like that a housing developer with both residential and public parking on the list. Ive spoken with a few friends who live near downtown San Carlos and they are quite pleased with Wheeler Plaza and the rise of more new businesses in their previously sleepy downtown (they kept their Refuge while we lost ours).
I also spoke with a long time manager in Hassett Hardware where I used to shop while in downtown PA. She remembers the prior opposition to an Alma affordable housing project that went up near their building (Hasset owners were then concerned about solar access on their rooftop panels). She said they suffered no compromised business (they are limited to only 4 on-site parking spaces plus limited Channing and Alma street parallel parking). Moreover, one of their employees now lives in the next door multifamily housing building (which did not cast a shadow over the Ace Hardware). Despite the semi-controversy at the time, it was not a dire housing versus business survival decision.
My wife and I favor building housing on the downtown lots with optimised parking for local business employees, new residents-to-be and more specialty retail + service customers.
WE can build this.
-Paul & Jennifer Roberts
West Menlo Park
p.s., Time is a big project killer -- particularly on soft financing costs. Since I originally wrote in support of increasing downtown zoning density 3 years ago, my City Council member has changed. With rising interest rates and construction costs, I trust you can make a quick decision so that the developers can quickly put up the public parking garages and the multi-family housing to generate sales and leases.
p.p.s., Keep in mind both development restrictive Measures M & V were soundly defeated by we older residents. Many more new residents -- particularly those who rent -- do not speak as loudly at City Council meetings nor underwrite lawsuits, but they largely support much more housing.
