Dear Menlo Park City Council,
I’m reaching out to you with major concerns about Atherton’s proposed multi-family housing for Bay Road/Ringwood Avenue and how it will impact our homes, Flood Triangle and adjacent Menlo Park neighborhoods.
I was born and raised in Menlo Park and have seen how real estate density has changed traffic patterns, infrastructure and quality of life over the years. Atherton’s proposal to rezone four single family properties at the corner of Ringwood and Bay Road (296/318/352 Bay and 999 Ringwood) for multi-family housing places a significant hardship and undue burden on the adjacent Menlo Park neighborhoods.
For starters, access to the properties in question relies on Menlo Park streets, so any additional density will need to be absorbed onto the already crowded Bay/Ringwood thoroughfares. This area has unique and heavy traffic flow to begin with, since there are two schools on Ringwood and Bay serves as only one of two connections between Willow and Marsh. Moreover, the proposed multi-family housing unit at Flood Park for the Ravenswood School District is going to add more vehicle traffic on Bay and the surrounding streets. Couple the Atherton and Flood Park projects with the Parkline at SRI and Sunset Magazine sites and you have a recipe for even more tremendous traffic congestion, not only during busy morning and afternoon commutes, but throughout the entire day.
As a home owner on Oakwood Place, our street currently sees a large number of cars cut down Del Norte during the morning commute, which violates a “no-turn” traffic law between 7-9 am that applies to everyone, including local residents. These cars then turn onto Oakwood and back onto Ringwood to bypass a line of cars backed up on Bay from the intersection at Ringwood/Bay. Adding more cars from Atherton’s multi-housing project to this already congested area isn’t fair to the local residents or commuters, nor is it appropriate for Atherton to recommend traffic mitigation solutions on Menlo Park streets for their project, since it’s out of their jurisdiction. Finally, it is deeply irresponsible and unjust for Atherton to place these multi-family units on the periphery of their city limits, especially when they are not close or within easy walking distance to any large-scale public transportation lines or local businesses (i.e. grocery stores, shopping, restaurants, etc.).
The California housing mandate directs all cities to share in the responsibility of providing new housing, so I implore Atherton to find a more central location for these multi-family units. I find Atherton’s proposal to be personally upsetting, fundamentally unfair and not consistent with the spirit of the law, since it adversely and disproportionately effects local Menlo Park residents for what is Atherton’s mandate.
Respectfully,
Jeffrey Bui, MD, MS
Col (Ret), USAF, MC
311 Oakwood Place
