Thanks Mary.

I am the corporate secretary for a board and was unable to get tonights meeting rescheduled. ....so, cannot attend tonight.

Would someone please text me about the Councils action tonight.

Thanks all!

Carol

On Tue, Jan 14, 2025 at 1:27 PM Mary Gilles > wrote:
Dear Honorable Council Members:

There is substantial opposition to your plan to declare the downtown parking lots as surplus land. This valuable land which has been utilized for decades to foundationally support the local businesses is hardly surplus by any stretch of the imagination. Along with many other residents and investors in Menlo Park, I am vehemently opposed to your plan. Based on what I have been reading and witnessing, the council should consider putting this on the ballot.

Aside from the idea that the city should not be considering this land grab, an even more burning question is why we need to increase our population by potentially 20%. Assuming Menlo Park population is somewhere around 33,000 people – how does the city intend to absorb another 6000 residents (averaging 2 people and cars per new unit)? This is an enormous increase without any plans to address infrastructure and traffic impacts. Why do we want this?

For the record, it is my opinion that the state legislature has a political agenda to create an inordinate amount of housing in the state. The McKinsey report upon which the state relied to pursue these massive numbers of new housing is seriously flawed. The residents of California should join in an effort to repeal the laws that are allowing our state leaders to dictate local land use decisions which is forcing higher density in areas where it will destroy the intrinsic character of a community.

https://marinpost.org/blog/2023/3/29/whos-counting-how-mckinsey-hyped-californias-housing-crisis

In summary, I am opposed to the council taking over the business district’s parking lots for the purpose of housing and would encourage every resident in this state to vote out or recall the state leaders who have an agenda to turn our suburbs into high density communities.

Sincerely,
Mary
[Headshot]



Mary Gilles

GLOBAL REAL ESTATE ADVISOR

650.814.0858

m.gilles@ggsir.com

Lic.# 01789710

goldengatesir.com

Current Bay Area Market Report →

[Golden Gate Sothebys International Realty]





It is not within the scope of my work as a real estate agent to investigate or verify any of the information that is supplied by sellers and third parties.











--
Carol Carnevale
Realtor®, CRS
Included in the Top Teams as reported by the Wall Street Journal
DRE#: 00946687
m: 650.465.5958

[https://i.imgur.com/7RAFVIc.gif]
Read our reviews on Yelp
I have not verified or investigated and will not verify or investigate any information supplied by others.