Dear City Council, I am writing to plead with you to stop the push through
of this project at the corner of Willow and Middlefield roads. It is
grossly out of scale with the surrounding community. It will be detrimental
for the quality of life for everyone living within miles of this towering
monstrosity. Willow and Middlefield is already a very congested
intersection where traffic is often backed up to the bay.
We can only project what the impact will be on traffic when the SRI
Parkline project is complete, and the USGS housing project is finished. You
chose to redesign Middlefield to fewer lanes by adding bike lanes. What
will happen when you add more and more cars that stretch of road between
Marsh and Willow?
I keep hoping that a thorough environmental impact report will be done to
show that there’s no way you can add something that dense to the fragile
Creekside environment. I have lived in the neighborhood since 1983. The
creek flooded in 1998, and there is still no solution. The Chaucer Bridge
redesign has never come to fruition. It’s absurd. And part of it is because
of dealing with San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, Menlo Park, Palo
Alto, East Palo Alto. There is no agreement on how to distribute the water
during times of the 100 year floods. I walk along the creek frequently, and
you can see the asphalt from the Sunset property hanging over the creek
bed, severely eroded by a storm two years ago.
From what I understand, parking for this massive structure will be
inadequate. Residents in the Downtown North neighborhood already have to
pay the city to park in front of their houses. This is because of the
overflow of workers from downtownPalo Alto parking in all the neighborhoods
adjacentto University Ave.. The same thing will happen with 80 Willow.
Please do not let your legacy on the City Council be that you let this
abomination be built. Now it is the time to stop it.
Susan P. Meade
