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Name: Greg Conlon
Occupation: Consultant, CPA, Attorney
Time residing in district: Two months, Former longtime resident of Atherton
Key endorsements: Peter Ohtaki, Former Menlo Park mayor; Diana Hawkins-Manuelian, Atherton mayor; Jerry Carlson, former Atherton mayor.
Contact information: cell: 650-315-4956, email: conlonpg@msn.com
1. What makes you the best candidate and what relevant experience do you bring to this position?
Relevant Experience:
- Atherton Finance Committee, including several years as Chairman of the Committee.
- Former President of the California Public Utilities Commission with a staff of over 700 running this large State-wide agency.
- Former member of the Atherton Rail Committee for many years and helped make the tracks in Atherton a quit zone for its two grade-crossings.
- Former Board member of a Senior Center Housing Project (Pineview Project) constructed in San Francisco China-Town, for 85 units.
- Certified Public Accountant for many years and able to bring financial help to the City Council and help balance its budget annually.
Best Candidate:
With these experiences it makes me the best candidate, particularly in the financial area of helping balance the City’s budget.
2. What would your top three priorities be as a Menlo Park City council member?
My number one priority is to resolve the Sunset Housing Project. By trying to
moderate the project to fit more into a residential neighborhood it is being
located.
My number two priority is to start with making the Caltrain tracks located in the
four railroad track crossing in Menlo Park into a quite zone. But also to see if we
could raise enough funds to put the tracks located in Menlo Park in a trench to
reduce the number of fatalities along the entire Caltrain tracks from San
Francisco to San Jose. There have been over 30 such fatalities in the last three
years.
My number three priority would be to convince the State that ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) should be counted as an acceptable housing units. ADUs are being put forth in Atherton’s Housing Plan. I personally converted my pool house to an certified ADU before I moved to Menlo Park to help this cause.
3. What do you believe are some of the greatest challenges facing the city?
I believe the greatest challenge is to deal with the Sunset Project and somehow
change the character of the project to a more residential character, than it is now
proposed. Otherwise, the City will have a difficult problem in digesting such a
large metropolitan project in a City that is more residential in nature.
4. What are your thoughts on the city’s most recent housing element? Are there parts of the plan that you wish were done differently?
My thoughts are that the 2,161 units needed to meet the plans requirements that will be placed in the three parking lots placed between the U.S. Post Office parking lot
between El Camino and Chestnut, second the parking lot on Oak Grove between
Chestnut and Crane Street and third the lot between Crane and University will be
too many for this city owned parking lots. This will be too many in such a
small space.
I believe that the units to be placed in these three parking lots just described would be too much in the heart of the city downtown area and should be relocated to areas own outside the downtown area.
5. What should Menlo Park do more of? What should Menlo Park do less of?
I believe that Menlo Park should eliminate many if not all the stop signs along Santa Cruz Ave. These signs just congest this main street of the town down area. In order to eliminate these signs the city would have to change the parking spaces to vertical spaces only and have no horizontal spaces. This would require eliminating the grass spaces in the middle of Santa Cruz also. This would be similar to the main street in Burlingame. This would cause a wide open Santa Cruz from El Camino to University Avenue.
Eliminating the Stop signs would clear up Santa Cruz Avenue and have less
congestion in our downtown main street.
6. Should Menlo Park pursue a Caltrain quiet zone?
I believe the quiet zone should be pursued as one of my three top priorities in paragraph 2 above. The quiet zone would allow people to sleep better at night and would also reduce the number of injuries and fatalities.
7. What are your thoughts on the possible “builders remedy development” on the former Sunset Magazine campus?
Following is a summary of the proposed project:
The development data for this application will be verified once the application has been deemed complete:
Building 1: 336,065 sf office and 11,700 sf retail; 301 ft. tall
Building 2: 231 residential units and 130 hotel rooms (190,534 sf); 461 ft. tall
Building 3: 434 residential units and 17,540 sf retail; 397 ft. tall
Building 4: 2,670 sf Montessori School; 22 ft. tall
Total residential: 665 units (99.5 dwelling units per acre density) and 959,644 sf (approximately 3.30 floor area ratio)
Total non-residential: 336,065 sf office, 29,240 sf retail, 190,534 sf hotel, 2,670 sf
Montessori School = 558,509 sf (approximately 1.92 floor area ratio)
It is obvious that the size of the four buildings, both in square footage and height will overwhelm the Willow Road area. A project of this size should not be in a residential
area. It belongs in a business metropolitan area in New York, Chicago or Nob Hill
in San Fransisco.
I will try to meet with the developer to see why he believes it will fit in the Willow
Road residential streets and not in a major metropolitan area mentioned above.
The developer will probably meet the legal requirements of the State law allowing
such a project. The State legislature is where the project should be doomed. If the
assemblymen or Senators who voted for such confiscation of land use of our city
authority should be voted out of office. If the local State legislators residing in the
Menlo Park area voted for such legislation I would vote against them.
8. How can the City Council ensure that all residents of Menlo Park are included in decisions that may affect them, their environment and their health?
The only way the City Council can ensure all residents of Menlo Park are
included is to propose a referendum like a Measure CC for the residents to vote
on that will ensure the residents are involved in the decision making process.
9. What are your thoughts on the Transient Occupancy Tax increase (Measure CC) that is on the ballot for this election?
I would want to know how competitive the tax is compared to hotel taxes in near-
by city and towns. Assuming the new rate is competitive with other towns I would
support it, assuming the rate is much higher than other towns I would not support
it. Based on a limited comparison with Palo Alto the proposed Measure CC rate
is less than Palo Alto and will only be more than Palo Alto in two years after it is
passed. Therefore I would support passing the Measure CC tax.
10. How can the City Council encourage vibrancy in Menlo Park downtown?
I would find out why the Menlo Park City Chamber of Commerce is no longer in
business, since its goal would normally be helpful in getting the businesses
involved and make the City more vibrant. If the Chamber is in business, I would
work with them more to see if the City could do more to help them to be active
and vibrant. Someone at City Hall should find out why businesses are going out
of business and what the City can do to help them to stay in business.
I have found out that the City Chamber of Commerce has been merged into three
other cities Chambers and is functioning has a merged entity for all three cities. I
would want to look at this merged entity to see if it is working well enough to
improve the vibrancy of Menlo Park. If it is not I would want to see if a new
separate entity should be reestablished to make the City more vibrant.
11. What are your thoughts on automatic license plate readers in Menlo Park?
Both Menlo Park and Atherton have been using automatic license plate readers.
Therefore the Police should have good data to see if the readers are worth the
cost of continuing them.
