BY ELAINE GOODMAN
Daily Post Correspondent
Menlo Park City Council has added downtown revitalization to its list of priorities for the next fiscal year, and Mayor Drew Combs even proposed creating a new commission to work on downtown issues.
The discussion came during a priority-setting workshop Saturday (March 22), where another focus was whether to reopen a section of Santa Cruz Avenue downtown to car traffic. Council punted a decision on the street closure to a future meeting.
The council’s four priorities for 2024 were:
• Climate action — mitigation, adaptation and resilience;
• Emergency and disaster preparedness;
• Housing;
• Safe routes for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Council members agreed during the workshop to keep those four priorities for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, and to add downtown vibrancy as a fifth objective. The priorities will help shape the city budget for 2025-26 and a work plan for the new fiscal year. In a resident survey that drew 544 responses, many said downtown should be a priority for the city. Respondents called for preserving parking downtown, repaving lots, improving traffic flow and addressing business closures.
“Repave the parking lots on both sides of Santa Cruz Ave.; they are a disgrace!” one resident commented in the survey. “Open up Santa Cruz Ave. all the way to El Camino. Focus on reviving empty stores downtown.”
And many criticized the city for pursuing a plan to build low-income housing on three downtown parking lots. Council voted in January to issue a “request for qualifications” in which developers will submit their ideas for the lots and council will weigh in on them. Developer responses are due March 31.
“Downtown housing is going to decimate downtown businesses and (it) will take years to get them back,” a survey respondent wrote. “It won’t be convenient to have housing next to empty storefronts.”
Recognizing the range of issues bubbling up, council members agreed downtown deserved to be a priority.
“Downtown needs a discussion in itself,” said councilwoman Cecilia Taylor. “And about what the city can do as far as investment, because it definitely needs financial investment.”
Taylor also said she was “definitely in support of a downtown commission,” an idea that Combs said he’d like to explore.
Council also discussed whether to reopen a section of Santa Cruz Avenue that has been closed to cars. Council voted in 2023 to close the avenue to eastbound car traffic between Curtis and Doyle streets to make room for outdoor dining and public gathering.
Restaurants to reduce outdoor seating
But more recently, three restaurants in the 600 block of Santa Cruz Ave. — Left Bank, Loretta and Bistro Vida — said they plan to shrink their outdoor dining areas so they’re no longer in the travel lane, Interim Economic Development Manager Fran Dehn told council.
Instead, the restaurants plan to keep their outdoor dining within parklet areas over parking spaces along Santa Cruz Avenue. The city also refers to that space as the “streetary” area.
One option for the city would be to reserve the area that was previously parking spaces for outdoor dining or public gathering, while reopening the street to cars.
“What we’re seeing is the value of closure becoming less clear,” Combs said.
Vice Mayor Betsy Nash is especially interested in preserving the gathering space next to Walgreens. She’d like the city to install better outdoor furniture there.
“At all times of the day, I see people sitting there, having a coffee, bringing food there,” Nash said. “I think it’s a really good social area.”
As for reopening Santa Cruz Avenue to cars, Nash suggested waiting until the city decides on its overall vision for downtown.
Council members made no decision Saturday on reopening Santa Cruz Avenue. Instead, they asked the city manager to bring back the issue at a future council meeting for further consideration.
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