Dear Council Members,
In advance of tonight’s meeting, I write to express my strong support for the Menlo Park Housing Element as currently completed and certified by the State. In particular, I support the creation of housing, including low-income BMR housing, on the city-owned downtown parking lots. The plans call for the provision of replacement parking and working with businesses to ease construction problems. Taken together, the thoughtful development of new housing with replacement parking, should go a long way toward revitalizing our downtown.
The current Housing Element carefully protects open spaces and parks throughout the City, a protection that is critically important with the advent of a larger population base, living in smaller dwellings, who will need more outdoor space.
I do not favor any approach that would threaten the status of the Housing Element with the State. We might disagree with the State’s heavy-handed approach toward the development of new housing, but it is State law, and we must abide by it. The threat of non-compliance, either through builder’s remedy (shudder…) projects, loss of funding, or further State control of local conditions, is far too great to risk.
Thank you for your consideration,
Jacqueline Wender
930 Siskiyou Drive
