June 01, 2005

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Publication Date: Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Hotel: Traffic worries for neighbors, financial hopes for Menlo Park

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

Every luxury hotel wants to be worldly in the truest sense of the word, drawing people from all corners of the globe.

Which triggers quite a challenge: How do you get the people there without creating any traffic?

A plan by Stanford University officials to build a hotel-office complex on a triangle of land at Sand Hill Road and Interstate 280 in Menlo Park drew praise from city officials at a City Council meeting on May 24. Some residents of the nearby Sharon Heights neighborhood, though, voiced worries that the development would cause traffic problems.

While the area is already a well-known venture capital corridor, Sharon Heights resident John Turner said those office buildings have a perk that a hotel won't: They typically bring people in only during weekdays. The 120-room, 165,000-square-foot hotel -- and its accompanying restaurant and fitness center -- could engender evening and weekend traffic not only from hotel guests but from janitorial and maintenance staff, he said.

His wife, Mary Turner, agreed. "This kind of brings the world closer to the tranquility of the golf course and the (views of) the mountains," she told the council.

Stanford officials provided the council with a preliminary traffic study, which estimated that the 100,000-square-foot office complex could create 1,101 vehicle trips daily. Other estimated daily trips were 746 for the hotel, 343 for the restaurant and 100 for the fitness center and spa.

With such a large project, many studies and public hearings are yet to come. City development services manager Justin Murphy told the council that this process is expected to take at least a year and include an environmental impact report and hearings before the Planning Commission and City Council.

At the meeting, some residents from other parts of Menlo Park were more supportive of the hotel-office plan.

Stu Soffer, a former planning commissioner, had high praise for the Dallas-based Rosewood Hotels & Resorts chain, of which the Menlo Park hotel would be part. He said he stays regularly at Rosewood's Hotel Crescent Court in Dallas.

Planning Commissioner Lou Deziel said the hotel's proximity to I-280 means that traffic will likely only come on and off the freeway without affecting residents.
In the money

Financially, the project could be a feather in the cap for city officials. Development would mean more property-tax revenue for the city, as the site holds only waving grass today. The project could also bring in sales-tax and hotel-tax revenue.

"There's a reason why cities all court hotels," Mayor Mickie Winkler said at the meeting, calling the project a "high-tax-generating, low-density" undertaking. "This is the launch of a potentially exciting project."

City Manager David Boesch also praised the level of thought that the applicants had already put into the project, saying, "It demonstrates a very solid team."

The meeting was a study session, so the council took no formal action.

The proposed design of the project is inspired by the laid-back California Adobe style of Sunset magazine, with long verandas, adobe walls, lots of natural light and many courtyards, Stanford officials have said.

John Hill, principal with Hill Glazier Architects of Palo Alto, told the council that the complex would have a sprawling village feel, in contrast to the large office buildings nearby. Buildings would cover less than 18 percent of the 21-acre site, he said.

Bill Phillips, a spokesman for the Stanford Management Co., said he expects the tenants of the office building to be firms from the venture capital world, preferably those that would attract a far-reaching clientele to make use of the site's conference and hotel space.

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