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The city of Menlo Park announced that city planning staff had once again deemed the city’s two formal “builder’s remedy” applications incomplete due to items missing from the applications.
On Oct. 11, the city deemed the application for the controversial development at the 6.7-acre, former Sunset Magazine headquarters site located at 80 Willow Rd., incomplete for the second time. The developer, N17, had previously been told that their formal builder’s remedy application for the site was incomplete in June. They resubmitted their application on Sept. 12.
What’s the ‘builder’s remedy?’
Builder’s remedy is a state provision that allows developers to bypass local land-use regulations if a city does not have a compliant housing element. The state certified Menlo Park’s 2023-31 housing element on March 21, however, state certification does not prevent builder’s remedy proposals that were submitted prior to certification from moving forward. Both developers filed their preliminary builder’s remedy applications last summer.
Renderings show that the project, dubbed “Willow Park” would consist of three towers that contain 665 housing units. There would also be more than 350,000 square feet of office space, a Montessori school, a 130-room hotel and nearly 40,000 square feet of retail space.
On Oct. 16, Menlo Park deemed the application for another builder’s remedy project from developer Greystar, located at 104 Constitution Dr., to be incomplete as well. This is the third time that Greystar’s application for the site has been deemed incomplete.
104 Constitution Drive is a 0.87-acre parcel of land located between Highway 101 and the Bayfront Expressway, near Meta’s headquarters, which is currently occupied by a surface parking lot. Before this application was submitted, the site was slated to be developed into office buildings. This parcel is located on a portion of the project site for the Vasara housing development, which is also being developed by Greystar.
These two rulings from Menlo Park’s planning department do not mean that the developments cannot go forward. Each developer will have the option to once again resubmit a formal application to bring it into compliance with city requirements.
There is no limit to the number of times a developer can resubmit an application. However Assembly Bill 1893, also known as the Housing Accountability Act, which was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 19, could change this.
Under AB 1983, if a city or local agency determines that a builder’s remedy application is incomplete after two resubmittals by the developer, the city or agency will have to establish that the determination is not an effective disapproval of the housing development project. This bill takes effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
If the city receives a resubmitted application from a developer between now and Jan. 1, it will have 30 days to review the application for completeness. Once an application is deemed complete, it will then be reviewed by the city for compliance with environmental and development standards, as well as other city requirements before plans can be fully approved by the city. Builder’s remedy projects are not exempt from environmental review.
The developers could also choose to appeal Menlo Park’s determination of incompleteness for the projects.
Anyone can view the application materials, including architectural drawings, for the two projects in person at the Menlo Park City Hall, 701 Laurel St. Follow along with the projects and learn more about builder’s remedy on Menlo Park’s website, menlopark.gov.
It’s weird to me that their applications can be considered incomplete, but they still get credit for submitting while we were awaiting state approval. It seems like if the only reason they got in was because the state told MP the housing element was incomplete, but the builders get the time stamp from an incomplete application. Seems like a double standard and definitely not in the best interests of the community.