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A group of residents and businesses is raising money to oppose Menlo Park’s proposed affordable housing developments on downtown parking lots. The group, Save Downtown Menlo, launched a GoFundMe that has raised over $130,000 in less than a month.
“[Donations are] coming from visitors, people in Atherton, Woodside and Portola Valley that use downtown Menlo as their main business and shopping hub,” said Kevin Cunningham, a downtown property owner and an organizer for the legal fund. “Out of any stakeholder of Menlo Park, anyone that has any interest, the majority are against this.”
Save Downtown Menlo claims the city might not have legal authority to repurpose these parking lots for housing. Most of the downtown parking plazas were acquired by the city in 1955 through eminent domain, funded by additional taxes paid exclusively by downtown commercial landowners within a special assessment district. No taxpayer funds from outside this district were used for acquiring the land or constructing the parking plazas, a court case from the time states.
“Many years ago, the downtown property owners, the people that own the properties and businesses in downtown Menlo Park, paid into a parking assessment district, so they effectively bought the land, not the city,” said Cunningham.
Because of this history, Save Downtown Menlo argues, “the city merely has custodial rights, in the nature of a trustee, to manage the parking facilities for their committed parking uses, for the benefit of those who have paid for the parking facilities,” according to a letter from Rutan & Tucker LLP, the land-use law firm retained by the group.
The city disagrees with that assessment. “State law does not grant assessment payers vested rights in assessment district improvements, nor does state law provide that assessment district improvements shall perpetually remain in the same form or prohibit a change in use, or even abandonment of assessment district improvements, particularly where such changes are in the public interest,” a Jan. 14 staff report to the city council said. “Because the parking lots have provided benefits to assessment district members for 60 years or more, and the bonds were completely paid off in the 1980s, the benefits of their contributions have been satisfied.”
Officials from the city of Menlo Park declined to comment.
Save Downtown Menlo also disagrees with the city declaring the parking lots as “surplus land.”
“Obviously, it’s ridiculous to call it surplus land. Surplus means it’s an excess land that doesn’t have a use; drive down any of the public parking lots and it’s clear, even with plenty of vacancies on Santa Cruz Avenue, it’s hard to find a parking spot at any time,” Cunningham said.
The city has held off on declaring the land surplus, a necessary step before handing the lots over to a developer. The Surplus Land Act requires cities to first consider property for affordable housing or open space before selling or leasing it for more than 15 years. The state hoped to force cities to make land available for affordable housing before using it for other activities, according to a staff report.
Although the city intends to use the lots for affordable housing, it must declare them as exempt surplus land because the city itself will not construct the housing. Surplus land is defined as “land owned… by any local agency for which the local agency’s governing body takes formal action in a regular public meeting declaring that the land is surplus and is not necessary for the agency’s use.”
The city is declaring the land exempt surplus because it will be used specifically for affordable housing, thus removing the requirement that the city first offer it to affordable housing developers, according to a staff report.
Save Downtown Menlo hopes to raise $300,000 to ensure it has “ample resources available for a long legal process.”
Funds raised by Save Downtown Menlo will be used in an effort to block the city council’s housing proposal. Initially, the GoFundMe page also indicated that money could go toward hiring political consultants from Rutan & Tucker’s political division, although this mention has since been removed.
Meanwhile, another group, YIMBY Law, a pro-housing legal nonprofit, has warned of legal action if Menlo Park does not move forward with plans to convert three city-owned downtown lots into housing.
YIMBY Law emphasized that any delay in the development timeline outlined in Menlo Park’s housing element could trigger “builder’s remedy” projects. This legal mechanism allows developers to bypass local restrictions and can lead to additional litigation, which YIMBY Law indicated it is prepared to pursue.
Menlo Park is already facing issues related to the builder’s remedy. The controversial Willow Park project at the former Sunset Magazine site, which includes three towers, 665 housing units, office spaces, a Montessori school, a 130-room hotel, and extensive retail space, was submitted under the builder’s remedy and is now undergoing environmental review.
The city has yet to take action committing to developing the parking lots. Instead, it posted “requests for proposals” from developers for a potential affordable housing development.
Soliciting requests does not commit the city to moving forward with a specific proposal.
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