Dear Mayor Nash, Members of the City Council, and Staff,
I am writing to ask the Council to continue to decline approval of the
Willow Park project at 80 Willow Road as currently proposed, even given the
risk of litigation.
I want to be clear about where I stand on housing, because it bears on
everything below. I support building more housing in Menlo Park, and as
quickly as we can build it. I support converting our downtown parking lots
to housing. I do not understand the resistance from downtown businesses on
that point. Several thousand people living within walking distance of those
businesses would do nothing but increase the number of customers.
I also support housing at 80 Willow Road. My objection is to this project,
not to development of this site.
The proposal as filed is too big and too tall for the site, and it does not
adequately account for its effect on the surrounding community. The office
component is the least defensible element of all. Palo Alto, Menlo Park,
Mountain View, and Redwood City are awash in unused office space. There is
no reason to build a single square foot of new office here, and certainly
no reason to accept it as the price of getting housing approved.
A more reasonable proposal would have my support, and I suspect it would
have broad community support. Something along these lines:
1. Housing at a scale closer to ten stories.
2. Ground-floor retail.
3. Space for a school or preschool.
4. A publicly accessible park.
That is a project worth building. The current one is not.
I understand that holding this position carries litigation risk, and I do
not dismiss it. But litigation risk is not the only risk in front of the
Council, and it is not the largest one. A lawsuit is finite. It has a
defined cost and a defined end. A project of this scale, once approved, is
permanent, and the City and its residents will live with it for the next
fifty years. I would rather the City defend its position, and negotiate
from it, than approve something this far out of scale in order to avoid a
fight.
I ask the Council to continue to withhold approval of the project as
proposed, and to say clearly and publicly that the City will support a
redesigned project at this site that delivers substantial housing without
the office space, hotel space, and without the current scale.
Thank you for your time and for your work on this.
Best,
Charles Adelsheim
128 Blackburn Ave
--
--- --- ---
Charles Adelsheim
