The Menlo Park City Council voted unanimously Tuesday (Jan. 14) to proceed with the idea of developing three downtown parking lots into subsidized housing.
There is no plan in place for the lots, only the vague outline that one to three lots between Santa Cruz and Oak Grove avenues will be redeveloped into up to 483 apartments.
Council voted to issue a “Request for Qualifications” for developers who want to build on the lots between Oak Grove and Santa Cruz avenues. Developers will submit their ideas for the lots and the council will weigh in on them.
The developers’ proposals are expected to come back to council to review in the spring, said city Principal Planner Tom Smith.
The council opted not to declare the parking lots as surplus land, which would have made it easier for the city to hand off one of the parking lots to a developer.
The council heard from more than 100 people over four hours regarding the downtown parking lots. Many of those who spoke fell into one of two camps.
On one side is the group called Save Downtown Menlo Park, which opposes the conversion of parking lots into apartments. Among the group’s backers are many downtown merchants and landlords, including Ace Hardware owner Vasile Oros and business owner Alex Beltramo.
On the other side is Menlo Together, an advocacy group that often lobbies the council on issues such as housing and the environment. Among its leaders are former Housing Commissioner Karen Grove and former Complete Streets Commissioner Adina Levin.
This story will be updated.
The downtown vacancy rate is going to soar, and the place will become an empty ghost town. Good job, City Council. Who is going to lease a space on Santa Cruz Ave. now?
Agreed. This is a disaster for downtown businesses.
People will lease space on Santa Cruz to cater to the more than 480 new residents who won’t need parking to get to any of those local businesses. It will also cater to all the other people currently visiting downtown businesses. Our population isn’t shrinking. That is what helps keep business alive. Also, turning Santa Cruz into a no car zone would make it an even more appealing place to be.
You want to take away the parking lots AND any remaining parking on Santa Cruz Ave? Then you clearly want to kill all business downtown.
It will take years to complete and populate this housing, and the entire time parking will go away. Those businesses won’t survive that, even assuming the new residents have the money to spend.
Oh well. Expect lots more vacancies on Santa Cruz Ave. A few weeks ago I noticed there were more vacancies than previously and a long-time merchant told me to stay tuned because there will be more. He was right. Who in the right mind would move there knowing customers couldn’t park.
No I have to find new service people because I’ve been late for recent appointments after wasting 15 minutes joining the other car parade looking for parking –and that’s before this nonsense.
Agreed on the circling for parking. I had to laugh at the comments made from the Menlo Together ppl last night about the lots always being vacant. That is definitely not the case, esp. weekdays between 11-4. I even emailed pictures of the lots behind Amici’s being completely full at 2pm last Wed. to Betsy Nash, but with no response. The council just doesn’t care.
I stayed through all the comments–3 hours of insightful, fact-based comments about the myriad problems the Council’s plan would create, including the heart-wrenching reality that it will force half of our downtown stores and restaurants to close. The vast majority of speakers opposed the plan, and there were no sound arguments for putting “affordable housing projects” in the one place in our city where they would do the most damage, by destroying more than 30 businesses.
Yet, though we packed the Council Chambers to overflowing, the City Council remained deaf to all our warnings and all our pleas as if the community hadn’t spoken at all. Their big concession was to postpone their declaration of our essential downtown parking lots as “surplus land.” It appears they intend to take that next and fatal swipe at our downtown once the current intense public reaction dies down. Disgraceful.
Menlo Park might as well tear down retail properties on or within a block of Santa Cruz Avenue (including Trader Joes) and use them for housing as well. No one will shop in Menlo Park once there’s no parking.
Stop being disingenuous, the parking will remain under the housing.
The parking will go away during the years of construction. When completed it will be mostly filled with residents vehicles.
With this vote, the city council killed retail on Santa Cruz Ave. If you can’t park, you won’t shop or dine there. I’m sure businesses are looking over their leases to see if they can move away. What a disastrous decision!
You are correct… Repeter (on Chestnut) is closing at the end of this month partially due to this proposed housing project. And I heard confirmation today that a nearby salon won’t be renewing their lease once it runs out.
Exactly. I overheard clerks at a store on Santa Cruz saying the boss has already warned them they weren’t renewing their lease this Summer. What a shame.
That construction will kill every business on Santa Cruz Ave. But it has bike parking. That’s all these fools care about. And the YIMBY Coalition. Not Menlo Park taxpayers.
ICYMI, the Planning Commission also voted down a second entrance/exit to the planned Sheridan Drive housing project, leaving only one way in/out. In light of the recent wildfires in SoCal, this is a horrible decision. The Fire Board tried to make a case for us, but to no avail. I guess the City of MP really hates current homeowners.
I have to say I am laughing hysterically at the outrage. I remember when the folks who were getting large affordable monsters in their neighborhood everyone said it was just sour grapes by one neighborhood. They tried to put some curbs on these radicals with Measure V. They said it was just the start. Well, they were right. Now that it’s Central and West Menlo everyone’s screaming.
Well good. I can’t wait to see how Menlo Park transforms from a quiet city to one big mass of cheap “affordable” housing. The YIMBY Coalition knows the city council will back any development they want. They listened for 4 hours last night and thumbed their nose to all of it.
As they say elections have consequences. I’m finding it all delicious.
How about developing one lot as a multi-story parking structure while building housing on the others?
I feel like I am living in the movie Dr. Zhivago. All of the council members and supporters of this plan should be forced to house 10 more people in their own homes to show true commitment.
This is ridiculas. Downtown Menlo Park will be ruined.
Next insult – instead of the normal required 2.5 parking spots per apartment u8nit the council will decide that since this is “near” public transportation the requirement will be waived / reduced to 1 per apartment unit. The result willl be a flood of cars and commercial vehicles parked on all the streets removing even more parking.
I think there should be an attempt to recall the entire city council.
I second it! They obviously don’t represent We the Residents, but rather They the Developers, and the useful YIMBY idiots.
“the useful YIMBY idiots”. Be careful, you’re talking about the people that run Menlo Park!
I live nearby in downtown Palo Alto. I am glad to see our neighbors in Menlo Park do the right thing: build new homes. We need them! More neighbors means more customers for businesses.
Build the new housing OVER the existing parking lots!
Leave the EXISTING Parking on the ground – like it is now! Phase the construction so it does not impact the merchants too much.
Do not sell the parking lost LEASE BACK to the City!
Instead replace the council chambers and city admin offices and parking with housing. It’s time something useful was done with that waste of space.
I won’t shop in downtown Menlo Park without parking. Time to shutter the businesses.
Is it time to recall the City Council?
So this will eliminate almost 600 parking spaces after they did the same to Oak Grove/Ravenswood so it will total 900 not including El Camino??? Nobody will survive the construction see Calif Ave Council doesn’t care about property owners.
The lobby group is well-organized. They claim to live on low incomes, yet they wear luxury brands and use expensive phones. The city council completely disregarded the people’s concerns. When discussing the proposal, they seemed more focused on meeting state requirements than addressing local needs. The final vote was unanimous, 5-0. Who is advocating for the opposing viewpoint? Legal action and an investigation into the council and staff are essential. They are undermining Menlo Park.
The lobby group is well-organized. They claim to live on low incomes, yet they wear luxury brands and use expensive phones. The city council completely disregarded the people’s concerns. When discussing the proposal, they seemed more focused on meeting state requirements than addressing local needs. The final vote was unanimous, 5-0. Who is advocating for the opposing viewpoint? Legal action and an investigation into the council and staff are essential. They are undermining Menlo Park.
Sadly, no one is advocating for the rest of us. I’m sure that big developers paid for the current council member’s campaigns (which sadly is legal, but shouldn’t be) and it’s been widely reported that Menlo Together paid for ppl to attend the 1/14 council meeting, to speak at the meeting and gather signatures for their petitions. Menlo Together is a well organized / well funded group.
2006, Menlo Park decides to drive out car dealerships with punitive taxes, city revenue plunges.
2025, Menlo Park decides to eliminate downtown parking. Businesses fold and the city revenue plunges.
What a disaster to local businesses and an eye sore to downtown Menlo Park. Council definitely wasn’t listening to the businesses and residents who live in Menlo Park. Sad.
So confusing to me how the City Council can consider active parking lots as “Surplus Land” when they’re in constant use even with the current vacancies on Santa Cruz. Even a basic study of the lot’s usage would show the capacities during normal retail operating hours and during the dining hours. I’m all for re-developing d/t MP – we should have done that BEFORE doing it along El Camino. Simply declaring the land surplus and only putting in low income/subsidized housing isn’t the solution. Those lots, if converted should include multi-level parking, some affordable/subsidized housing, and plenty of non-subsidized housing as well. The whole downtown needs a facelift! This isn’t the way to do it though.
I get what the council is doing. The number of homeless lounging around downtown is growing and they want to put them in apartments, like the Opportunity Center in Palo Alto. But the problem is that many homeless don’t want to be housed. I don’t think the city can force them to move into one of these “affordable housing” units. (I love how the news media and homeless advocates always call them the “working poor.” “Working” on what? Working to get more drugs?)
This isn’t about homeless people though. This is about people who earn up to $65K for a single person and up to $93K for a family of four. They’re not poor people by a long stretch. They’d be fine if they relocated to almost anywhere else, but struggle here because the Bay Area has become one of the most expensive places to live in the country. “Affordable Housing” here is a type of Section 8 housing. The tenants pay 30 to 50% of their income for rent.
Homeless people need special accommodation. Some need drug rehab, some are mentally ill and need care. These projects are for working people with “low incomes” by Bay Area high standards.
Is It Affiliated With LifeMoves For The Parking Lots
WOW. THIS IS TERRIBLE. There is nowhere to park anyway, these businesses are about to go out of business now. Time to vote City Counsel out.
I’m a downtown Menlo Park business owner located in parking lot 2. Building homes in the parking lot would absolutely destroy my business that I’ve worked so hard at building for the last 25 years. construction and traffic would deter anyone from coming to our business 🙁
This move is just tone deaf for the small business people built and stay dedicated to downtown Menlo. That construction will last years and eliminate almost all parking. I just can’t see how they survive. If I were a business owner in downtown I would refuse service for all of the city coincil.
Well we’re movin’ on up, to the west side
To a deluxe apartment in the sky
Movin’ on up
To the west side
We finally got a piece of the pie
Fish don’t fry in the kitchen
Beans don’t burn on the grill
Took a whole lotta tryin’
Just to get up that hill
Now we’re in the big leagues
Gettin’ our turn at bat
As long as we live, it’s you and me baby
There ain’t nothin wrong with that
Woof!
Longtime MP resident here who lives within a half mile of downtown. We need more and modern housing in Menlo and this is the best place for it. Kudos to the council for making the decision. I understand why Ace prefers the parking but frankly we shouldn’t be optimizing for a hardware store – the people are very welcome.
What the city should do is eminent domain every one of those tiny, two story apartments between Middle and Santa Cruz and build housing on that space. Those small apartments are ancient, out of code, and a waste of good space.
Fantastic news. I had a good laugh at all of the hilariously uninformed comments made by the opponents to the project. I hope you lose your parking spaces and use your legs to walk around and see the city once and a while and I am eager to welcome more people into our beautiful city that shouldn’t just be for the wealthy. Good riddance to the parking lots.
Thank you city council.
The Council’s unanimous vote means Betsy Nash, the representative for District 1 (downtown Menlo) does not support her own constituents. We deserve a better voice.
There were many good points made in opposition to the project. This would not be the first time good points are ignored.