Regarding: "Downtown Menlo Parks VITALITY, as a PRIORITY".
Please consider my opinion, which is based on 40+ years as a commercial real estate attorney, and owner and manager of countless apartment buildings (350+ units), office buildings and retail properties (100,000+sq ft).
I am not personally benefited or harmed by the ultimate failure, or revitalization of downtown Menlo Park, but I can not simply stand silent in the midst of your plans to build state mandated low cost apartments on parking lots that are essential to our Downtowns vitality.
I believe you are making decisions about the downtown parking lots that are based on either bad advice or lack of experience.
Why is it a mistake?
The legislators in Sacramento have decided to micro manage the real estate market throughout California.
Most realtors will tell you it will not work because:
Real Estate is "LOCAL"
Real Estate will only be built where the local circumstances dictate.
Your "plan" requires that the parking lots be declared: "Surplus Land";
Fact: They are Not SURPLUS LAND, even if Legislators supply a convoluted definition of the term: "Surplus".
How do we know this?
A standing room only at the January 2025 council meeting told you our parking lots are "NOT SURPLUS LAND!"
A Ballot Measure with overwhelming signatures say "Not Surplus Land",
A pending lawsuit presents a "Cloud on the title" to the parking lots.
100s of business owners signed a petition saying" Not Surplus Land".
And if you were to simply block off the parking lots for a month . . . You would hear from merchants and their customers that the parking lots are not Surplus Land.
Also, Parking ramps that are 5 stories tall will not "replace" the parking lots.
The facts are screaming at you, and you need to:
Represent the voters, not the distant legislators who are meddling in our local issues.
Legislators with NO real estate skills are incapable of planning local real estate projects.
That is why "39,880 affordable units across California are stuck in financial purgatory", as reported in the attached article in the Daily Post, front page 3/18/2026..
So: what should your priority be?
Look elsewhere to build state mandated low cost apartments!
Respectfully,
Michael DeMoss, Attorney
Former member of the Menlo Park Finance and Audit Commission.
Read this news article:
Sent from my iPhone
