Dear Council,
Please see my input into the Housing Element. I may not be able to attend tonight's meeting in time to make a public comment.
1. Emergency Housing. What's the plan to house residents displaced due to a disaster? My understanding is that the Red Cross sets up temporary shelters only. I believe they arrive within 72 hours and disband the shelters after 30 days. I read that a jurisdiction should plan for shelters for about 10% of our population as most displaced people stay with family or friends. Please see the attached April 2021 Disaster Response Guidelines that I made a public records request to obtain. The shelter list (page 25) is extremely out of date. We need an updated list and MOUs with each, along with possibly pre-securing needed supplies. The Fire District's Disaster Response Guidelines were developed without jurisdictional and public input and review. This type of process is one reason why I believe Menlo Park needs to take more responsibility for its disaster management.
2. Policy H2.1 and H2.C. Menlo Park has hundreds of soft-story apartment buildings and even some condos. The HOA board may be unaware of the seismic risk. We need a soft-story incentive to get them seismically retrofitted as they are prone to collapse in earthquakes. Retrofitting doesn't cost that much and residents can live in the building during a retrofit. I believe the average cost is about $7,500 but this needs verifying. I counted the soft story buildings in District 1/Belle Haven and I got a count of 17 buildings (I excluded 335 Pierce Road which is slated to be torn down) and a total of 72 units. That could be anywhere from 150-300 people at risk of displacement in Belle Haven alone following an earthquake. Another resident has made a count of soft stories all over Menlo Park. There are hundreds.
3. Program H4.R. Work with the Fire District and Policy H6.2. The H4.R implication is that the plan is to get the Fire District to cooperate in lowering fire safety standards. I consider this a major mistake. Fires following earthquakes are a typical secondary consequence. Fires are what destroyed San Francisco in 1906, not the earthquake. I would like the City to work with the Fire District on incenting fire and wildfire defense solutions. We could train more people on fire safety and help to outfit Belle Haven (for example) residents with fire extinguishers and the knowledge of how to use them. Our building codes could also be stronger. I believe we have adopted the bare minimum of "life and safety only." We could do better. As to wildfires, one of the most common ways that wildfires spread is through embers and burning debris that gets into attics. The Fire District and the City could work together to provide incentives to help people to retrofit attic vents and to add sprinklers. Outside vegetation could also be hardened. The downtown business district particularly needs sprinklers in most of the buildings. Suitable new large housing units could also include underground water storage. The Fire Marshal and Fire Chief should give input into H4.R.
Lynne Bramlett
650-380-3028
