Dear Mayor Combs and City Council members,
Let’s face facts: the parking lot housing issue is going to the ballot.
And, rather than persisting in your apparent denial of this reality, I suggest you do as follows:
1. Instead of playing footsie with these developers who are only too hungry for RFPs, do the right thing by pressing the pause button and letting them know this issue will be decided by the residents—Menlo Park voters—and that you cannot responsibly ask them to spend their time and money on development plans until that vote takes place, likely in June of next year if not before.
2. Next, instruct your staff to send a letter to HCD informing them that the downtown parking lots are in serious jeopardy of being taken off the table through a ballot measure, and you wish to propose alternative sites, including a buffer in case any issues emerge with other sites going forward.
3. And last but not least: Send your staff—who should have dissuaded you from putting our essential downtown parking plazas in the Housing Element in the first place—back to the drawing board to find a number of better choices for this housing.
Perhaps it’s even time to listen to the community, as many of us have provided a wealth of suggestions in this regard, including increasing the affordable housing component at SRI as I’ve discussed in a prior letter.
This is not rocket science, Council members.
Why persist in alienating the residents you’re supposed to be representing? Instead, work together with us to preserve what we love about our downtown by choosing more appropriate sites for this housing.
Sincerely,
Cherie Zaslawsky
