Submitting on behalf of Bill and Joanne Frimel
City Council Members,
We are asking for a delay on any decision to move forward with housing on plazas 1-3 until the city residents can weigh in on this proposal.
This proposal has been kept secret from the residents in order to ram it through!
As a reminder, when the City developed the Downtown/El Camino plan, they hired a traffic consulting firm.
Their suggestion was Plaza 3 was the only good alternative for a parking garage. Plaza 1 was rejected because it could potentially block traffic on El Camino.
Plaza 2 was too small for a garage.
Plazas 4-7 required building over a side street and the traffic flow onto Menlo Ave (even then was backed up) would make the proposal untenable.
This proposal will destroy downtown as businesses will no be able to survive with limited parking alternatives. What about the property owners who paid to develop the parking lots and were granted access to the lots when the City created downtown in the late 1940s? Isnt this a grandfathered issue?
Home values will go down due to lack of services the community depends on from hardware store to restaurants. These are all
small businesses. Our quality of life in Menlo Park will be negatively impacted.
The community deserves a say in this proposal just as numerous community workshops were held in working up the successful plan for the
Downtown/El Camino Plan.
If this proposal passes, the community will rise up in revolt just as they did when the Council approved
the ill-conceived Santa Cruz Ave redesign with curves and bulb outs.
The next election completely changed the City Council membership.
That decision and community reaction will appear tame compared to this jaw dropping proposal.
Bill & Joanne· Frimel
1001 Windsor Dr.
Residents over 50 years and past member of the MP Chamber of Commerce
Caitlin Darke
1377 El Camino Real
caitlin@caitlindarke.com
650-388-8449 cell
DRE#: 01332161
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