Menlo Park Housing Commission:
PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW LOW-COST HOUSING (OR ANY HOUSING) in the downtown parking lots without careful planning instead of a hodge-podge of meeting the states demands. You will kill the few businesses that we currently have in downtown Menlo Park and deter new ones from coming in.
You want to solve the housing crises we have? Try digging a little deeper to find out what is actually going on in this city through a thorough study, talking with citizens, sending out a survey, etc - dont try to sneak things in via meetings people dont typically know or even hear about or be pushed around by developers or Stanford.
I live at 767 Roble - directly next to me are 3 empty units homes that could be filled:
1. At 743 Roble Avenue, Jason Chang (CEO of CSBio in MP) bought and renovated this building. Two of these units are being rented out month-by-month for $5.5 - $6K, hugely overpriced on purpose so that no one will rent them: https://www.zillow.com/homes/743-Roble-Ave-.num.2.dash.ID1497-Menlo-Park,-CA-94025_rb/2053222129_zpid/ These used to be full-time homes for individuals/families contributing to the community. They are now empty 95% of the time, because they are purposely overpriced and very likely being used to park foreign investment.
1. 595 Morey - this house has been sitting empty for years, even though it seems like its for sale - and they actually did rent it out for a bit but realized it was too much work. Definitely parked foreign investment.
Please do it right and dont let money-grabbers ruin our city.
Kate OConnell
