Dear Menlo Park City Council,
I am sending you this email to voice my opposition to the proposed low income housing tower to be situated on certain downtown Menlo Park parking lots. Although I recognize that it is important to provide low income housing, I also believe that it is also incredibly important to keep our downtown thriving with multiple shops, restaurants, business services offices with adequate parking. It is important to strike the right balance in order to keep the downtown economic environment vibrant. We still have many shuttered shop windows after the pandemic. And the parking lots I have used are already FULL. There needs to be careful study of the impacts of such a proposal and plenty of community input.
I think that creating a tall tower of low income units using the 3 parking lots will disrupt that delicate balance of downtown businesses and the parking needed to support the area, and we are then at high risk of business decline and departures.
Thank you for taking into account the input from the residents of Menlo Park, with adequate notice about meetings and adequate consideration of community input. I understand that there was an overwhelming outpouring of community voices opposing the current proposal at the overflowing Jan 14 City Council meeting.
Respectfully Yours,
Eve Murto
2140 Santa Cruz Ave. B-210
Menlo Park, CA 94025
