BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
State Senator Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, and San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller yesterday voiced their opposition to the proposed project at the former Sunset Magazine headquarters at the corner of Middlefield and Willow roads.
The two officials said in a joint statement that large projects such as the one proposed for 80 Willow should not be seriously considered. Developer Oisin Heneghan wants to put up four towers at the magazine’s former headquarters, with the tallest reaching 348 feet or 29 stories (with a story equaling 12 feet). As the Post first reported in July, the property is owned by Vitaly Yusufov, son of former Russian energy minister Igor Yusufov, who has close ties to Vladimir Putin.
Becker told the Post that he experienced “a bit of shock” when he first heard about the proposal.
“The need for housing across the region is serious and demands serious proposals to address the shortage — but proposals such as this, that include buildings taller than any in San Jose, undermine the good work of housing advocates and create more problems than they address and should not be seriously considered,” Becker and Mueller said in a statement.
Becker and Mueller join in with Councilman Drew Combs who told the Post on Tuesday that he thinks the city should not process the application.
The project would include up to 1,150 apartments along with a hotel, offices and retail space. The project is being submitted under the Builder’s Remedy law, which allows developers to ignore local rules on height and density, as long as one-in-five units are rented below the market rate if a city has not gotten its housing plan approved by the state. Menlo Park is on the hook to plan for 2,946 homes, and has a plan under review with the state
Becker went on to say that he is concerned about the Builder’s Remedy’s use in the area.
“Cities here are working really hard on their Housing Elements,” Becker said. “If they are working in good faith and the council says to let them decide where housing goes, then my inclination is to support them.”
Mueller, a former Menlo Park mayor, shared Becker’s sentiments, saying the city is working in good faith to meet the state’s requirements and to “somehow be subjected to this no limits builders remedy project penalty while in the process of approval, and be left to costly litigation to fight it, is absolutely absurd. This is the type of nonsense local jurisdictions feared in the taking of their local control.”
The Post asked Becker if an amendment to the Builder’s Remedy could be proposed in the legislature to stop, or slow down, projects such as the Sunset proposal. Becker pointed out that it is late in the legislative cycle to propose such a bill.
Menlo Park Mayor Jen Wolosin said earlier this week that the 29-story building is “wildly out of scale” with what the city has been planning in terms of growth. She also said the city will have community meetings about the project once more is known about it. So far only preliminary plans have been submitted, meaning all of the project details aren’t known yet.
“The Post asked Becker if an amendment to the Builder’s Remedy could be proposed in the legislature to stop, or slow down, projects such as the Sunset proposal. Becker pointed out that it is late in the legislative cycle to propose such a bill.”
Back when Becker was asked in Zoom meetings about his support for all the housing bills, he replied that he was “:having a tough time wrapping his head around the issues” which prompted local wits to suggest we send him a turban to wrap around his head given how evasive he was — and still is — on contentious housing issues.
Maybe he can explain how Palo Alto, the city, is supposed to answer the state’s complaint that it contributes to the “discriminatory culture of affluence” in the state’s mandate.
Does the city determine private sector salaries, stock options, benefits??
Who do I talk to about getting a raise?
California’s “Builder’s Remedy” would not even apply to Palo Alto had city leaders not been so derelict in planning housing for the city’s workers. There are so many places around Palo Alto that could be improved by adding high-density housing, especially vacant areas near employers. A 29-story apartment complex could easily be built near Sand Hill road in the unsightly Nordstroms parking lot, close to Stanford’s Children’s Hospital.
Ray Mueller was in support of a 4 story apartment complex being dropped into a Menlo Park neighborhood of single family homes because the YIMBY coalition and other lobbied for it. Now he’s against a large development. What changed? His vote doesn’t matter and can’t hurt the developers that support him. Ray can take a stand on this issue because it doesn’t cost him anything. I’m glad he’s out of Menlo Park and our future.
Here we go. Blame Mueller because the voters rejected your ballot measure trying to kill an affordable housing project. The voters voted. The majority of Menlo Park agreed with Mueller. Your ballot measure lost by a very large margin.