BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer
A pro-housing group has sent a letter to Menlo Park officials, asking them to speed up the process for approving housing on downtown parking lots despite a citizens’ initiative that seeks to stop it.
Council decided in December to put the citizens’ initiative on the November 2026 ballot, which could allow voters to have a say on any proposed development on the downtown parking lots.
San Francisco-based YIMBY Law sent a letter to the city yesterday saying that Senate Bill 330 would protect the project from the ballot initiative moving forward and comply with the Housing Element, a state-required housing plan. SB330, the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, was a law designed to speed up housing construction by limiting local governments’ ability to block or slow down housing projects, prohibiting “downzoning,” establishing development timelines, and imposing stricter objective standards for approvals
What would change
The city has already committed to developing housing on the downtown parking lots, and if it doesn’t, it will have to amend its Housing Element to find new sites for new development, the letter states.
If the city submits an application to entitle the downtown parking lots-to-housing project under SB330, it will speed the process forward by streamlining the review of plans to five hearings before approval. It will also save city employees time and money used in any potential lawsuits, the letter states.
The ballot initiative comes after the group behind the citizens’ initiative, Save Downtown Menlo, filed a lawsuit against the city on April 14, which it later put on hold. The group says it could bring the lawsuit back once the city clarifies its final decision on the parking lots.
Previous letter
Last month, YIMBY sent a letter to the city threatening to sue for not moving forward with the proposed 40-story complex at the former Sunset Magazine head-quarters at 80 Willow Road.
Russian businessman Vitaly Yusufov contends the Sunset development can go forward, even though it exceeds the city’s height restrictions, because it is a Builder’s Remedy project. Developers can claim their projects are Builder’s Remedy projects if the city didn’t have a state-approved housing plan by Jan. 31, 2023. Menlo Park missed the deadline, opening the door to projects that exceed city zoning rules.
The city contends that Yusufov’s project isn’t eligible for the Builder’s Remedy, but YIMBY Law says it is, and that the city is trying to stop the project by imposing new requirements that were not previously made.
I love it. Now outside advocacy groups are demanding the City Council do their bidding or else. The YIMBY folks are taking their queues straight out of the trump playbook. They’ve got nothing to lose by trashing Menlo Park. They don’t LIVE HERE. The only real question is – will the City Council represent the outside groups or the people of Menlo Park?
Why would they take the sides of the taxpayers now? They haven’t so far.