Dear Council Members,

I am VERY CONCERNED about the proposal to eliminate 3 prime parking lots in downtown Menlo Park and use the land to build affordable housing!

1. I choose to shop and eat at the restaurants that are adjacent to those parking lots BECAUSE of the ease and convenience of those parking lots!!

2. If you want to kill businesses on the north side of Santa Cruz in that section of downtown Menlo Park, you could not think of a better way to DESTROY those businesses!

3. This seems like just an “easy fix” to a more complicated problem! Our downtown businesses need the support of BOTH customers AND the Menlo Park Council! Why are you trying to DESTROY our downtown INSTEAD OF TRYING TO ATTRACT MORE people to USE downtown Menlo Park?? You should be using your time, energy, and resources to figure out ways to HELP the businesses!

4. Yes, affordable housing is important. But USE LAND IN OTHER PARTS OF MENLO PARK. It might take more time and energy to do it the RIGHT way, but that is what is
needed.

5. Telling people to park on in the parking lots on the south side of Santa Cruz is NOT A GOOD SOLUTION! People will just not go to those businesses if parking is not easily accessible.

6. A future parking structure to replace the lots 1, 2, & 3 that will disappear is NOT a good solution! The businesses will be gone because no one can park nearby. Plus, what land will you use for the structure? With no parking for a long time, and the uncertainty of where and when a convenient parking structure can be built does NOT make sense! And who will PAY for the new parking structure, especially when convenient and cost-effective parking has been removed?


I personally am VERY CONCERNED with the decisions being made by the CURRENT MEMBERS OF MENLO PARK COUNCIL!! You seem to be aiming to destroy the current businesses plus eliminate the unique and treasured aspects of Downtown Menlo Park. We need your HELP to REVITALIZE downtown, but NOT BY DRIVING CUSTOMERS AWAY FROM Santa Cruz Avenue businesses!

Thank you.

Carole Thurmond Wills
381 Nova Lane, Menlo Park