City Council and Planning Commission Members,
As a 14 year resident of Menlo Park, I urge you to curtail the scope of the Parkline housing project to protect safety and accessibility in Menlo Park.
As you know from past examination of the railroad crossings, the crossing at Ravenswood is especially tenuous during high traffic hours which surround both business hours AND very importantly school hours.
In addition, the accessibility to and from Highway 101 via Willow road has deteriorated. Of course, there was respite amidst the pandemic, however, the existing two lane road is insufficient to accommodate future growth.
The city has expressed interest in forward and future thinking which I think is apt. Preparing for additional housing is an important part of that for certain.
That said, the plans must be coupled with forward thinking and planning regarding infrastructure to accommodate additional neighbors such as above/below grade railroad crossings and additional routes to access highways 101 and 280. Not doing so puts current and future neighbors at risk and lacks prudence.
The Parkline project is scoped to add over twice as many units as the 2 large developments yet to be inhabited (Springline is open but not at capacity and the Stanford project is still under construction). Despite how the city chooses to draw district lines, all properties are adjacent to downtown. While convenience to public transit is a benefit, it is not realistic or fair to assume that new residents will give up their freedom of owning and using an automobile. People have lives off of El Camino... kids sports activities, jobs off highways vs downtown, jobs like sales or construction that require daily driving, hiking in the hills, volunteering on the coast for example.
While I understand that speculative models have been generated regarding the potential effects to traffic and safety, I urge the city to "digest" the new additions from other downtown adjacent developments before adding extensively to them.
I am fully supportive of adding new housing on the SRI campus and the campus development overall. I also support stipulating that a higher percentage become affordable housing.
My asks:
* Perform a traffic and safety assessment subsequent to the large developments on El Camino being inhabited. That will be possible very soon if the need for housing near downtown is dire.
* Perform a survey of those new neighbors to see how they in fact are commuting and using / not using public transit.
* Ensure city of the future planning includes near term investments in infrastructure to improve access to highways 101 and 280 and also above or below grade RR track crossings
Thank you for your consideration regarding rejecting this enlarged and negatively impactful proposal for this development.
Susan Stimson
