Hello all
I am writing to you and requesting time to discuss SB9 and its impact to our neighborhood.
If any of you have been on our Court, you will notice the beauty of massive trees, no sidewalk, and a very pleasant country-ish feel.
It is a dead-end street, and many people ride/commute on their bikes. We nicknamed our street the Dog-walking street because of the small amount of traffic. Everyone, seriously everyone in the willows, and Palo Alto uses our street to walk their dog. My family and I have personally made quite a few friends because of this. We as a total are mostly owners of our homes, and everybody knows everybody on our street, even the renters. We all make an effort to be friendly and neighborly to each other. As an example, My family was out of town when our street flooded New Years Eve. My neighbors knew and sandbagged our entire house! We even have an email group with all of our neighbors. I want you all to know how close we are, and this is the main reason everyone in our neighborhood has purchased a home here, because it is a single family neighborhood, not multi dwelling.
Well, we apparently have our first SB9 creeping into our neighborhood. A Wonderfull man Ray passed away, and a couple years ago we were pleased to know it was a family moving in, not developers. We were mistaken because we now know that they are filing for an SB9, and have applied for a permit to cut down most of their trees on their property, very large mature, possibly heritage trees. I get it, I understand if a tree needs to be remove due to an addition/remodel/ New home. This is not the case. They will build two homes, and I understand that the second home can be as large as 2,000 square feet! My house looks big on my property, however it is only ~1,200 sqft.
I am doing my best not to be a doomsayer screamer, but this is outrageous. We live on a dead end street, quiet neighborhood, with about 40 homes. This can easily turn into 60 homes in 5 years, then what? Rip up our street to put in sidewalks, while removing a dozen trees?
Also, there is no guarantee that my property value will remain as is, and I have a feeling it will decrease, because we will lose the Neighborhood Charm.
I do not know what power the city has over this cookie cutter, one size fits all’, but I truly believe its place is not here on our street.
I know there are areas in Menlo Park that would be suited to this, like the housing on El Camino, and the area by Burgess Park, Not here.
Not here.
How do I address this to you all, what power do I have against this ridiculous law, that benefits developers, once again.
I will appreciate your recognition of reading this email, and of course appreciate your feedback, thoughts, and possible solutions to keep my neighborhood a neighborhood.
Thank you,
Virginia Davis
469 Oak Court
