Dear MP City Council -
Extra parking capacity is now very much needed in downtown Menlo Park, but the value of our downtown parking plazas is far greater
than parking, and the future may diminish rather than increase the need for parking. MP's parking plazas are incredibly valuable
land and open space.
Above-ground parking structures are admittedly cheaper if considered only as parking rather than as land use. Hand any developer a
MP parking plaza, however, and he would accommodate all of the parking underground and make much better use of the above-ground
land commensurate with its value. That value is far too great to be used just for an above-ground parking garage. That may be the
norm in San Jose where land is much less expensive, but above-ground parking structures are inappropriate at the stratospheric
land values we now have now in downtown MP. If we do the downtown right, values will become even higher - for the plazas, for the
community which owns them, for tax revenue, and for surrounding property owners,
The plazas currently provide air, light and viewscapes to the buildings which surround them. The existing buildings will be
de-valued if the current open space of the parking plazas is replaced by the walls of above-ground parking structures.
I call the following proposal the "Piazza de Menlo." The Piazza in Sienna, Italy comes to mind but they are all over Europe, and
they are immensely valuable public amenities. They provides focus, countless unique and highly-desirable design opportunities, and
many attractive public uses.
How can we afford it? I suggest the rule of thirds. Allow a developer to develop 1/3" of the surfaceof a parking plaza in exchange
for doubling the parking capacity of the existing plaza and placing the parking underground. The costs and values are subject to
considerable variance until a final plan is adopted. It is possible that the rights granted to the developer would have to be at a
nominally greater height than the current downtown 38' limit if that is necessary to make the economics work, or taxpayer dollars
or a benefit district could be used. The developer's added development would also be parked underground, and it would be situated
so as not to materially interfere with the light, air, and viewscape of surrounding properties. The remaining 2/3rds of the Piazza
would be left open and would be dedicated to public amenities - outdoor dining, a public gathering place, temporary marketplaces
like the farmer's market, and public events. It could be stunningly beautiful with gardens, seating, fountains, and other
features.
Menlo Parkis not Mayberry any more. I realize that we deal with the reality of a community which wants traffic and commerce
elsewhere, but this proposal is not massive development. It is instead more efficient and more valuable use of our existing
downtown. Undergrounding our parking is no simple logistical or political challenge. But SRI, FB, Sand Hill Road, and other
remarkable entities and people have put MP on the global map. We have a new generation of residents who care as much about
downtowns as they do cars, perhaps more. If not MP, then where? If not now, when? We are an exceedingly wealthy community which
happens to be blessed with significant, world-class, but shabbily under-utilized real estate in the heart of our downtown in the
form of our parking plazas. We owe it to future generations to get it right just as Leland Stanford did.
Note: If Uber/Lyft and autonomous vehicles come on line quickly, parking garages will become white elephants. Instead of each of
us driving 6,000lbs of metal to our destinations and then leaving the behemoths in storage all day (cars today are stored95% of
the timerather than in use) with the attendant expense, congestion, and mis-allocation of capital and land, our futurecould
instead see only a fraction of the number of vehicles we have today. That much smaller number would constantly circulate, drop us
off, pick us up, and would rarely be stored (parked). We can't know the future, but getting a free or lower-cost multi-use Piazza
while solving our immediate parking needs strikes me as a better deal than building a single-use above-ground parking garage which
is not a civic amenity, negatively affects surrounding property owners, and which may be largely abandoned in a decade or two
because of autonomous vehicles, thereupon becoming a candidate for the wrecking ball.
Thank you for considering this important issue and moving the conversation forward.
--
Sincerely,
▒▒▒▒ Poe
Menlo Park, CA 94025
dickpoe01@gmail.com [dickpoe01@gmail.com]
