Dear Menlo Park City Council,
I would like to be there in person tonight however my wife and I had a new baby girl on Saturday Night here in MP so I will be unable to attend in person. Our building owner and landlord, Kevin Cunningham will be there to speak on our behalf.
I wanted to express my opposition to allowing the city council to declare downtown parking lots as “surplus land”. While it may seem like a good idea on paper, we rely heavily on the access to our business from the parking lot directly adjacent to our building at 1149 Chestnut Street and our business would all but fail with a development in this location.
I have been in the coffee business for over 25 years and have opened over 30 locations. Every location that has been dependent on a parking garage to service the café has failed. So as a Coffeebar representative we wanted to express our discontent with the proposed plan. Coffeebar is already managing plenty of operational challenges since COVID and we do not need a 2-3 year construction project only 8 feet away from our main access door to reduce traffic further. This project would be detrimental to our business and we would likely not renew our lease to continuing operating in and for the Menlo Park community.
I am also disappointed that the City of Menlo Park denied our parklet permit in this parking lot (after our application was pending for almost 3 years). It’s a shame that the City didn’t even make reference to this being the reason.
I think there are other ways to bring vibrance back to downtown and fill the 6+ vacancies that exist on Santa Cruz. We are on the tipping point of Santa Cruz turning into a slum of vacant buildings with many local businesses struggling to survive. Taking away the parking for these businesses would be detrimental to our success and the Menlo Park community at large.
Warmest regards,
Greg Buchheister
Owner
Coffeebar
