BY ELAINE GOODMAN
Daily Post Correspondent
Repaving of parking lots 7 and 8 in downtown Menlo Park is a project that businesses and residents have requested for years, and yet it’s not expected to happen until 2027.
During a City Council study session May 13, Mayor Drew Combs wanted to know why. Council was discussing capital improvement projects — such as flood protection, building maintenance and street light upgrades — and how to pay for them.
Combs said downtown lots 7 and 8 are deteriorating and have been in substandard condition for years.
“That parking lot looks like government doesn’t exist,” he said. “It just seems like a lot of delay.”
Public Works Director Azalea Mitch said the city is working to identify utility lines beneath the parking lots and then will contact the utility companies to see if they’re planning to replace the lines in the near future. The idea is to avoid digging up a parking lot for a utility project shortly after it’s been repaved.
The city is planning to build public housing on lots 1, 2 and 3. Lots 7 and 8, which drew Combs’ attention, are not part of that project.
Repaving the lots is also more complicated because the city will install electric vehicle chargers there. Menlo Park is receiving money from the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission to install the chargers.
And the public works department is struggling with six vacant positions in its capital-improvement group, Mitch added. “This small group, we’ve been doing what we can,” she said.
Combs questioned the city’s priorities, noting that while lots 7 and 8 remain unpaved, the city is warning residents on social media that they’ll be ticketed if they don’t back into diagonal parking spaces on Middle Avenue.
“It doesn’t seem like our priorities are in order for what are the basic things that people … expect from government,” he said. “It just seems a little, to me, absurd at times.”
Bikes and train horns
During the study session, council member Jeff Schmidt suggested that the city shift funding to “quality of life” projects in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
Those projects would potentially include a pilot project that residents of the Allied Arts neighborhood have requested to slow down traffic. Residents have proposed placing signs that say “slow streets” in the middle of the street at strategic locations. The signs cost about $250 each and can be installed in around 10 minutes, they say.
The pilot project “might be a very minimal amount (of money) but would really address that feeling of anxiety and quality of life that the Allied Arts district is feeling,” Schmidt said. “I don’t think we need a $10 million project.”
Bike safety program
Schmidt said another priority for him is bicycle safety, “given what’s happened.” Dylan Taylor, a paraeducator at La Entrada Middle School, was biking to work on May 7 when he was struck and killed by a GreenWaste truck.
Schmidt also wants to prioritize a “quiet zone” project in which special gates would be installed at Caltrain crossings so trains no longer need to use their horns as they travel through town.
“Just get it done,” Schmidt said of the $4 million project.
Rising sea waters
Council also discussed the future of the Safer Bay project, which would use levees, flood walls and other strategies to protect communities from sea level rise and tidal flooding. The project would cost an estimated $500 million to build.
The federal government has canceled a $46 million grant for the second phase of the project, and the city is waiting to see if it will receive $3.7 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the first phase. The first phase, consisting of design and engineering, is expected to cost $5.7 million.
Meta has pledged $7.8 to the project and PG&E has committed $10 million.
Council members agreed that the city should try to complete the design work for Safer Bay to make the project “shovel ready,” even without yet knowing how to pay for construction. Moving forward with design work might involve renegotiating with Meta and PG&E on how their funding can be spent. The city will also look for others who can help pay for the project.
“If we put a pause on a project like this, it may not ever happen,” council member Cecilia Taylor said. “As a person who lives in a flood zone, I’d love to see some more protection.”
Combs recused himself from the discussion of Safer Bay because he works for Meta, which is providing funding for the project.