City Council, City Staff, and members of the public:

I look forward to the public conversation tomorrow night at the City Council meeting about downtown housing.

In the flurry of signs posted downtown, emails to community members, and ads on social media, I see people who deeply care about our community and are aligned in a desire for a thriving Menlo Park. This engagement on all sides of the issue gives me hope that we can find a path forward together.

I hope that tomorrow we can listen deeply to each other as we navigate this fraught territory. I hope we will try our best to understand and honor each others needs and perspectives. I hope that we will give our best effort to create a solution that supports our citys thriving: now and in the future.

As a city, we have a commitment to build more housing and meet our obligations as per the Housing Element. Housing that is close to services and transit is a great way to create a thriving downtown and is certainly a more sustainable option from an environmental perspective. Infill housing is better than building on the wildlife-urban interface as weve unfortunately seen with the fires in LA.

I stand in support of taking the next steps to explore building housing on downtown parking lots and I hope that the city, and the developers watching this unfold, take seriously the concerns of downtown businesses and come up with creative ideas to mitigate any temporary and long-term challenges they/we might face as we move forward. Lets find a way to work together, to compromise where needed, and bring a beautiful vision for downtown Menlo Park into form.

Thank you,

Nancy Larocca Hedley