BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer
Menlo Park may get 50 new townhouses where a former controversial techie social club once operated.
Chase Rapp, owner of 68 Willow Road, is proposing to demolish the existing Cuckoo’s Nest, which drove neighbors crazy with noise and barbecue smoke in 2016, and replace it with 50 townhouses.
The project is in the first stages, and groundbreaking is a year or two away, Rapp’s Director of Operations Gloria Arteaga said to the city housing commission on Nov. 5.
Commissioners were worried about the 23 heritage trees — coast live oaks, cherry and valley oaks — that would be removed. Commissioners asked if the wood could be repurposed or if any of the trees would be replaced.
Arteaga said the site is constrained. She said they’d try to save as many trees as they could.
The townhouses are near a proposed 40-story complex proposed for the former Sunset Magazine headquarters at 80 Willow Road.
Russian businessman Vitaly Yusufov wants to develop the 7-acre Sunset property, building 665 units of housing and towers as high as 458 feet. While such a proposal would normally violate city building codes, because the city didn’t turn in its housing plan to the state on time. As a result, certain projects are allowed under the Builder’s Remedy provision of state law if they include a portion of subsidized housing.
The city has declared Yusufov’s Sunset project isn’t eligible for consideration under the Builder’s Remedy.
At the Nov. 5 hearing on the Cuckoo’s nest proposal, city Housing Commissioners asked Arteaga to make some homes more accessible to seniors. Arteaga said that each townhouse will have a different room configuration.
50 new townhomes at 68 Willow Road in Menlo Park? Build it! This is a great place for new neighbors, just a mile from CalTrain, and less than that to restaurants and other amenities.