Dear City Council,
As a business owner and commercial building owner at 695 Oak Grove, the proposed housing in the three parking lots north on Santa Cruz Avenue would be detrimental to businesses and local residents who use those businesses. Monday through Friday the lot for our building in 80-95% full from 9:30-4:30 of cars. There is very limited street parking in surrounding areas. Where will both employees and users of business park?
The place to put the new housing with that much density is between El Camino and Caltrain. The new mixed use building on Oak Grove was the place for that to occur.
Residents of Menlo Park love the downtown area, residents of other nearby cities come to use the downtown area for healthcare, shopping, dining. The loss of that much parking all at once will cause residents and others to not come to downtown which will significantly reduce the tax base of the city as the businesses move to other cities. I will recommend selling our building and move to Redwood City or Palo Alto as soon as possible if this is approved.
The idea to have more housing is good, the location and amount is important. One option might be to use the smallest lot as a “test” case to see if the reality of placing a new housing is viable in the area or not. To use all three of the lots all at once will be a poor decision causing unintended consequences.
Thank you for your time.
Mark Sanford
Owner Better Hearing Center of Menlo Park
Partner 695 Oak Grove LLC
