Hello,
I am a resident in District 5 of Menlo Park - I want to write to voice my opposition to the parking lot development as currently proposed in advance of the next hearing. If there are
My thoughts as a resident are:
* developing the lots is totally reasonable - but shouldnt be done without in-kind assurances/replacement of existing parking (or adding more given the development will likely add parking needs). While developing housing in this vein doesnt *require" parking - if its not added then youll end up having people that live there extend their parking out to nearby streets (whether its allowed or not) and end up in a spiral around street parking, permitting, and similar issues (I believe palo alto has had related challenges, particularly in the college terrace area). Reducing parking downtown will also impact the existing local businesses in a way that new residents are unlikely to offset. I believe the updated plans reflect this, and this is likely my primary (but not only) concern.
* A taller and revitalized downtown (starting with the santa cruz and el camino corridor) will be great! can we do more upzoning and incentives to upzone existing structures vs. converting parking lots as well?
* the plan as proposed should accommodate a broader set of income levels - if that changes density or height zoning thats a trade-off, but ensuring or dedicating some of the housing for local employees (or at least have qualifications that dont specifically exclude them) feels like a positive outcome for the town
* it feels like the plan could create more efficient use of the parkline project / SRI project - its unclear why a full 25 acres of open space are needed out of the 63 total acres of development, vs. 20 acres and pushing SRI to develop 5 more acres of affordable housing (which would also be extremely close to services and downtown). I believe that 5 total acres would be *more* than the current parking lot proposal, and also would likely be a net benefit to the developer.
* the plan as proposed should require the developers to fund infrastructure improvements needed:
** traffic
** school costs
** additional fire/police details or equipment needed - in particular i’m not sure the fire department is staffed for several higher rise buildings of the scope here. I think the sunset magazine developent also adds to this problem.
I believe the Stanford developments created issues with taxes and school funding, so as a town we should try to avoid compounding those issues in future decisions.
-mark
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Mark Kilgore
mark.kilgore@gmail.com
