BY AMELIA BISCARDI
Daily Post Staff Writer
Opponents of plans to convert three parking lots in downtown Menlo Park into subsidized apartments are getting the word out by putting flyers on cars and posting them on storefronts.
Residents, property and business owners are unhappy with the idea of taking away the 556 parking spaces to build 345-483 subsidized apartments, with at least 25 emails being sent to the City Council’s public email before Tuesday’s (Nov. 19) meeting about the lots.
City officials held a meeting on Thursday which about 40 people attended with many questions about the proposal, including the sentiment that the redevelopment of the parking lots is “rushed,” according to a report from Principal Planner Tom Smith.
Downtown Property Owner Kevin Cunningham described the meeting as “spicy” and said people weren’t happy.
Many who have written in before tomorrow’s meeting are urging council to slow down the process and consider the needs of business owners.
“I understand the importance of expanding affordable housing, it is equally important that we thoroughly assess how such developments might affect parking, traffic, and downtown businesses, especially as there are already many retail vacancies downtown,” resident Matt Normington wrote. “I strongly encourage the City Council to engage more deeply with residents and local business owners to ensure that their voices are heard and that their concerns are taken into account.”
Council on Tuesday will vote to give Community Development Director Deanna Chow the green light to start soliciting plans for the lots from developers.
“This is a dramatic and substantial change to Menlo Park which I believe will have appreciable effects on our city’s struggling downtown businesses, as well as already problematic traffic patterns and parking availability,” resident Rico Rosales wrote.
“One of the reasons to visit Menlo Park is the relative ease of parking and being able to get large bulky items to one’s car from stores such as Menlo Park Hardware. If I had to use a parking garage I would forgo shopping locally and go to a store such as Home Depot where there is lots of surface-level parking. The same would be true for dining,” wrote Atherton resident Kenneth Knapp.
Other residents say the process is going too fast.
“I am asking for a delay on any decision to move forward with housing,” Resident Mia Giannotti said. “This initiative has been kept secret from residents until just a few days ago; I in fact only found out about it on NextDoor over the weekend.”
The city has talked about building housing on the downtown parking lots for years. The idea became more formalized in the city’s housing element – a plan that shows how the city can meet a housing quota handed down by the state. The state approved Menlo Park’s housing element, which covers 2023 to 2031, in March.
While many oppose the plan, a handful of email writers support the idea.
“This is a great idea to transform largely empty parking lots into a public area and provide much-needed housing units,” wrote resident Eva Archer.
Building housing in phases “would permit time for businesses and visitors to adapt to new parking locations and circulation patterns in the downtown area,” city planners said in a previous report to council. A previous city study for the downtown area recommended building one or two five-level parking garages with as many as 1,300 spaces.
Let’s slow down the process, 50 years of doing nothing is way too fast.
Jeez, low-income housing with all of its attributes (crime, drug dealing, prostitution, domestic violence) is just perfect for downtown MP. When these apartments or flop houses are built, let’s have a betting pool for when the first homicide will take place. But I guess I should be happy that I won’t have to go to EPA to get my crack anymore.
What a classist, uninformed, nonsensical take. Literally none of what you said is true and we are all dumber for having read it.
Why is the state so determined eliminate parking in every downtown like Menlo Park and on both sides of El Camino and thus destroy all the businesses whose customers need to park near them?
These are the same geniuses who keep telling us to take the train and then replace all the station parking with new housing so there’s no place to park if there’s a train that gets you where you want to go.
Guess in a few years Menlo Park will have to waste millions on retail consultants to figure out their downtown is suffering like Palo Alto’s doing right now.