Hi MP City Council,
My wife, 3.5 year old daughter, and I are about to close on 570 Laurel St on 11/5 which is the "Classic of MP" development next to SRI and on former SRI land. We lived at 1025 Laurel St #4 for 7+ years from 2011-2018. I'm writing to express our concern for the development at the SRI and USGS sites, and the negative impact it will have on the neighborhood. Specifically, density, traffic, safety, and home value. We are buying this home with the intent of raising our daughter and hopefully future children in the Burgess Park neighborhood area that we know it. Additional housing will negative impact our life there and may make it less safe for our daughter and family, and to be honest, if I had known more of the details, may have been a detriment to us buying the home. In fact, additional development may have a significant negative impact on us financially as it may decrease our home value. It will also dilute the resources available to us by making the amenities at Burgess Park much busier and thus less accessible to us.
As background, we are invested in the area as we both have worked at Stanford, and I currently am an Assistant Professor there and work in the LPCH CVICU. I also went to Stanford for college and grad school, and my wife and I lived in MP for many years and used Burgess Park regularly.
We encourage you to limit housing development and prioritize the current residents of the area. We encourage you to listen to the concerns and follow the recommendations of the neighborhood most close to and directly affected - our neighborhood in "the Classics of MP."
If this is to proceed, please consider a form of compensation to us homeowners in "the Classics of MP." This could range from priority access to services and amenities at Burgess park, compensation, or even buyout of homes given the immediate and direct impact this development will have.
Cordially,
Kenneth Mah MD, MS and Angela Mah PhD