Planning Commission:
Before you make recommendations regarding the Willow Village (and 6 office towers) project, consider:
* Does Menlo Park really need more office space?
* What will a known deficit of 815 housing units - on top of the 3,000 units already mandated by the state - mean to our neighborhoods and infrastructure? * Where else could 815 housing units be built? Why not where the new need would be generated?
* Why cant the beneficial parts of the project (e,g,, housing, hotel, grocery) be opened for use before new Offices are opened? Since housing takes longer to build, why not start it first?
* What financial liability is Menlo Park accepting if the hotel isnt opened or isnt successful -- continuously? See San Jose hotel loan default just this week.
* What is the rush on Menlo Parks part? There are ample reasons to wait:
Metas cloudy future
Office and traffic patterns post-COVID
Menlo Park response to state Housing Element critique, and implications for major rethinking of non-residential zoning
Details that matter. Prior meetings have not focused on the details of the 1,500 pages dumped on you and public in the past 2 weeks
Recommend:
* Modify the project so it is housing demand neutral or better (e.g., add housing, remove office space)
* Modify the agreement so elements beneficial to Menlo Park residents and taxpayers come before office
* Postpone consideration until there is more clarity about what the new steady state of Metas business, post-COVID traffic and in-person work patterns, and how Menlo Park can respond with realistic plans to address the existing state mandate for 3,000 new housing units
Patti Fry, former Menlo Park Planning Commissioner
