Thank you for writing us about this, Steve!
On Mon, Aug 11, 2025 at 3:05 PM Steve Schmidt
wrote:
> Dear Complete Streets Commission
>
> The SRI/Parkline is quickly heading to the Planning Commission on August
> 25 for its approval. (See below). The roles and responsibilities of the
> Complete Streets Commission includes “. . . provide input on major land
> use and development projects as it relates to transportation” Menlo Park
> residents need to be assured that large projects such as SRI/Parkline (with
> 1M sf of office) have been reviewed by the Complete Streets Commission. The
> Planning Commission and the Council will be in a stronger position if they
> can learn of your Commission’s recommendations regarding this project’s
> impacts. To date, this has not occurred.
>
> The Complete Streets Commission needs to add SRI/Parkline to its agenda
> for a full review of the traffic issues related to this development.
>
> A projected 15,000 cars a day will arrive and leave this site on
> Ravenswood between Laurel and Middlefield. A VMT program claims that a
> project TDM plan will give the project a dubious 28% reduction, bringing
> the daily car trips down to 10,800. According to the City’s TIA policy the
> city must verify the TDM program, but it has not done so. The alleged TDM
> plan is not a specific plan but instead, no more than a menu of strategies
> that Parkline could take. Is there an actual TDM Plan? The developer has
> pointed out that the existing SRI TDM plan works well because it addresses
> car trips from a single tenant. Parkline is a 1M sf office park with any
> number of lease holders. Lane Partners has expressed a concern that
> finding tenants who will agree to a TDM plan will be very difficult.
>
> Ravenswood is a complicated road with El Camino Real, the Caltrain tracks,
> the Civic Center and the Middlefield intersection where hundreds of Menlo
> Atherton high school students travel Monday through Friday. Obviously,
> there will be conflicts of different degrees throughout this corridor. The
> projected traffic problems from this SRI/Parkline development, the looming
> Sunset project and the future USGS plans could add 30,000 cars to our
> already congested streets. These projects need to be taken seriously with
> close review by the Complete Streets Commission
>
> Please act fast and bring this 1M sf office park and 800 housing units to
> your Commission for a careful review.
>
> Steve Schmidt
>
> Former Menlo Park Councilmember
>
>
> The Planning Commission is being asked on August 25 to:
>
> 1. certify the Final EIR
>
> 2. approve General Plan, Zoning Ordinance and zoning map amendments
>
> 3. Rezone the project site from C-1x
>
> 4. Revise the Conditional Development Permit
>
> 5. approve the vesting tentative map
>
> 6. approve a Development Agreement
>
> 7. approve a below market rate housing agreement
>
>
