Dear council members,

I have invested in Menlo Park, not only through purchasing our home, but also in continually patronizing shops, restaurants, and grocers. We chose the bucolic and unique town knowing we would have to pay quite high property taxes in supporting schools, police, fire departments and town employees.

I respectfully request you do not build densified housing at your proposed downtown parking lot in Menlo Park.

As a Menlo Park resident regularly patronizes the downtown, trying to fit the proposed plan of housing into the parking lots will forever damage the character of Menlo Park.
You have heard this from the majority of the speakers at the last meeting. We actually live here and utilize Menlo Park everyday.
If the town feels compelled to meet the requirements of the mandate from Sacramento, then please choose either of these already proposed sites.

1. Try to negotiate a deal with SRI and Lane Partners on SRI’s expansive development. This would be an opportune time as it is very early on to work space out there for housing on their 63 acres, less 29 for open space, leaving 34 acres (1.48 MILLION square feet).
Towns and companies buy carbon credits when not near solar or wind farms, certainly Menlo Park can buy into housing that is not built yet, is not designed, is not established.

2. The second choice site if SRI does not work out are the Civic Center parking lots.
They are within half a block of the train station, within one block of many restaurants, 2 blocks of supermarkets, and across the street from the up-and-coming park line development, which will have restaurants cafés etc. They are also right next to the parks at Burgess which have a swimming pool, tennis courts etc.

Please consider these 2 locations that are far better than the downtown parking lots.
Thank you.