This story was first printed in Wednesday’s Daily Post. Now we’re noticing that another media outlet has re-written the story and posted it as their own. Here’s the original. Remember to get important local news first, pick up the Post in the mornings.
BY NORAH SHEPPARD-HUTCHINS
Daily Post Staff Writer
A U.S. sanctions designation against Russian property owner Vitaly Yusufov could stop development of his 39-story tower at the former Sunset Magazine headquarters in Menlo Park.
Yusufov faces sanctions in Ukraine, while his father, former Russian Energy Minister Igor Yusufov, also faces sanctions in Ukraine and in Canada.
Sanctions can prohibit individuals and entities from engaging in certain trade, financial transactions and freezing one’s assets, according to the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Menlo Park City Council has not reached out to the OFAC or Congressman Sam Liccardo’s office to ask about putting Yusufov on a sanctions list, Councilman Drew Combs said in an email to the Post.
However, a group of residents has been preparing to report Yusufov to the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States, Combs said.
The Post requested comment from Liccardo’s office and Menlo Park Mayor Betsy Nash but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Vitaly Yusufov bought the seven-acre property at 80 Willow Road in 2019, which he plans to develop into 665 apartments, a hotel, office space and a preschool across three towers, with the tallest going up to 461 feet.
At 461 feet, it would be the tallest building between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office sent the city a letter on July 27, stating the city improperly changed its reasons for rejecting Heneghan’s proposal.
Heneghan then sent the council a letter on Aug. 3 stating that the council must approve the project by Oct. 27. Both Heneghan and Bonta’s office cite Assembly Bill 712, which is aimed at punishing cities that do not follow housing laws.
An extreme approach
Palo Alto will be in the shadow of the new Sunset towers. Councilman Pat Burt said he believes Bonta has taken an extreme ideological approach to Menlo Park’s housing issue.
“I would think if the Attorney General wanted to weigh in on something, it would be to look more deeply into who is actually investing in this property and is driving this development, and what are the sources of those funds,” Burt said.
While the proposal for 80 Willow would normally violate city building codes, Menlo Park’s housing element wasn’t certified by 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.
Combs said the council did submit its housing element on time, but the process was disorganized and the state wouldn’t return their calls.
“You’re also going to say that the city and residents have no right or expectation to any sort of environmental analysis, any sort of in-depth understanding of the impacts of traffic, of the ecological impacts—like, again, what’s the quality of the soil? How does that support a structure of that size?” Combs said.
Residents protesting
Residents in Menlo Park have been protesting the proposed development, and the pressure being placed on council by Bonta and Heneghan.
Resident Peggy Propp emailed council on Sept. 14, saying that it’s a shame a historical site may be destroyed.
Last summer, the National Park Service found that the former magazine headquarters is eligible for a historic listing, which could force a full California Environmental Quality Act review.
“Of course he’s going to object to it, given the money he stands to make,” Propp said. “That doesn’t negate the fact that the property qualifies both for the historical character of the building and the discovery of Native American artifacts on the site. I don’t believe that the intent of the state Builder’s Remedy law was to destroy California’s architectural heritage or sacred Native American sites.”
About 20 residents showed up to a Menlo Park City Council meeting yesterday to encourage council to stand against accepting the proposal.
On the federal level
The United States government has had a complex relationship with the Russians after the election of Donald Trump in 2016. He had been accused of having close ties to Russia. He’s denied that — and was vindicated by the Mueller Report — but then in recent days, Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson confirmed that a Russian oligarch with ties to Vladimir Putin helped fund their wedding party back in May.
Umar Kremlev reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the younger Trump’s wedding expenses, according to a report by ProPublica.
Nash is appealing to the wrong people. Liccardo is no doubt in cahoots with Bonta about this deal. The Yusufovs are allies of Russian President Dimitri Medvedev who’s a cold-blooded killer. This shows the extent to which California state government is willing to go to enforce the builder’s remedy even if it doesn’t actually produce any affordable housing. They just don’t know any other way to avoid the political fallout from the so-called housing crisis.
Shame on Bonta. And now he’s caved on the Paramount merger, too, so at least he’s consistent re oligarchs / authoritarians. We deserve better.
With the Paramount-WBD merger, Bonta bit off more than he could chew. If Bonta were to continue with his lawsuit, the Ellisons were going to move the studios out of California, which would have cost 40,000 jobs if you include both regular employees and people who depend on the studios for their livelihood. Over the weekend, the billionaire Democrat donors (Patty Quillin, Kaitlyn Krieger, Liz Simons, Mary Quinn Delaney) had to jump into the negotiations and come up with something to save Bonta’s butt. He’s their boy. Had the studios left, I doubt Bonta would remain as AG very long.
Menlo Park could have applied some pressure on Bonta to kill the Russian deal, but the council is naive and hopeless. Menlo Park has a few billionaires (John Doerr, Andrew Karam, Sheryl Sandberg, Eric Schmidt) who could have been persuaded to tell Bonta that if he killed the skyscraper, he’d get some campaign money. That always works with Bonta. But nobody on council knows how to lobby like that. And the only billionaire they know, Karen Grove, is a nepobaby who is clueless when it comes to negotiating anything.
BTW, “jam” — nobody calls them Oligarchs except Bernie Sanders, who flies on private jets. Bonta got into trouble not because he was caving to “Oligarchs” but because he was looking for cheap publicity for himself.
Thanks for the clarification re oligarchs” but what else would you call them? Back to Bonta, his “deal” requires them to release X films a year — 30 I think — to theaters which is odd considering that the theaters like Century 16 in Mountain View are closing.
As for the requirement that Paramount release 30 films a year, it’s not odd that it comes at a time when exhibitors are shutting down. Where do you think most of the films are shown these days? Direct to video.
The deal will unite Paramount+ and HBO Max into a single streaming giant. Maybe they’ll call it Netflix Jr.?
BTW, if Paramount fails to hit the 30-film benchmark, they’ll have to divest themselves of Miramax, which is losing money. The Ellisons aren’t going to be crying over that. That’s not to say Miramax doesn’t have some hits (Scary Movie with $231.9M worldwide and The Gentlemen on Netflix), but I don’t see any other Miramax movies on the Paramount theatrical release schedule. My guess is that Paramount is going to let the Miramax label die after the merger clears as a budget cutting measure. Miramax isn’t a huge part of the Paramount portfolio compared to something the size of CBS.
Knowing the Ellisons, they’ll meet the 30-film threshold by filming a couple of truly awful, cheap pictures — stuff nobody will pay to see, recorded entirely on a iPhone — as a tax write-off. You can churn out a terrible “B movie” for far less than the $27M penalty. You don’t think they’d do this? You never saw the Broadway show The Producers. It’s based on a real story.