Facebook’s plans for a 3.45 million square foot housing, office and retail development along Willow Road in eastern Menlo Park should come as no surprise, Menlo Park Mayor Kirsten Keith says.
The proposal, she said in an interview, is consistent with what the city planned for during its two-year-plus general plan update process, completed last November.
“I would say that as we look to the Bay Area and what’s happening in our neck of the woods — this is an area that will continue to grow. We can either choose to plan for it, or we don’t plan.”
“There’s always concern with change, but this is what we all worked up,” she said. “I think Facebook’s making a very good effort at actually building a lot of housing. … I feel blessed to live in a community where people do want to develop. A lot of places don’t have that opportunity.”
The project could generate the demand, she said, to reactivate the Dumbarton rail corridor, which runs by the property.
Reactivation could provide a transit connection from the Redwood City train station to Facebook and East Palo Alto. A transbay crossing could come later. Results from a SamTrans study of Dumbarton corridor options to ease traffic congestion are expected in the coming months.
“We have to show the numbers,” Mayor Keith said. “We have to show that it’s a viable solution.” Adding 1,500 new housing units and a lot more employees to a site along the corridor, she said, “bolsters the case.”
Ms. Keith said she expects it will take a lot of work among various agencies to acquire funding for the project.
To help attract funding, she said, the City Council is considering hiring a lobbyist who might work in Sacramento, Washington, D.C., or both. She said she, City Manager Alex McIntyre and Jim Cogan, housing and economic development manager, interviewed potential lobbyists during a Washington D.C., visit earlier this year.
Grocery store
Menlo Park Councilman Peter Ohtaki said he was excited to see the grocery store planned for the first phase of the Facebook project, along with other retail. “A grocery store is what Belle Haven residents have been asking for since 2013 and is badly needed to serve the neighborhood in that area,” he said.
“It certainly appears to be a innovation zone,” he said of the Facebook proposal, which has the concept of “live, work, play” — or housing, office, retail and outdoor spaces — built into it.
“While I have not seen the details, and I certainly reserve judgment until I see details, I was certainly pleased to see those aspects in what they’ve announced so far,” he said.
Several people contacted by the Almanac said it was too early to comment on the project.
“My understanding is that the development will be undergoing an (environmental impact review) by the City,” Councilman Ray Mueller said. “As such, I am going to refrain from making conclusions about the development until the appropriate time in the process.”
Several Menlo Park planning commissioners said they were looking forward to reviewing the plans and didn’t have specific responses at this point.
Planning Commissioner Andrew Barnes said he felt he needed more information, and Commissioner Katherine Strehl noted that the project will eventually come before the Planning Commission. “That’s when we’ll have the opportunity to thrash it out.”
Community response
Facebook invited some residents of the community to preview the plans before they were submitted to the city.
Diane Bailey, executive director of Menlo Spark, a local environmental nonprofit, said the project, from an environmental perspective, is “great news for the community.”
The proposal indicates the development would work toward a net zero energy goal and would plan to recycle water. Letting people live near where they work or go to school, she said, is the “single largest environmental mitigation you can design.”
Rachel Bickerstaff, a Belle Haven resident, who had previewed the plans, declined a request for comment.
Comments were not received by press time by Councilman Rich Cline or last year council candidate Cecilia Taylor. Councilwoman Catherine Carlton said she was traveling and will return this week.
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