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Menlo Park’s Civic Center area and public parks could return to the table as possible sites for residential development in the wake of the recent storm of opposition to potentially building houses on city-owned parking lots downtown.
During its Jan. 28 meeting, the City Council voted 4-1 to have staff prepare a report that explores the feasibility of other public land as alternatives to the parking lots for developing housing units, particularly affordable ones.
Council member Cecilia Taylor dissented, believing that she and her colleagues could delve into the matter at the group’s goal-setting session in March instead.
Council member Jeff Schmidt requested that a report be placed on an upcoming agenda that would review what sites have been looked into already and whether such places as the Civic Center could still be viable — but without redoing the long process that updated the state-mandated planning document known as the housing element.
“So that’s why I put this in front of our group — to ask for a simple open information or study session about alternative sites,” Schmidt said, addressing his fellow council members last week.
“To be clear, I’m not asking us to reopen up the housing element and go down that path at this point,” he said. “But I think it’s important that people understand that these things have been considered. So let’s level set and make sure we’re all kind of operating from the same page now that so many more people are paying attention.”
‘To be clear, I’m not asking us to reopen up the housing element and go down that path at this point. But I think it’s important that people understand that these things have been considered.’
menlo park council member jeff schmidt
Two weeks prior, people packed the Council Chambers while many others watched on Zoom, focusing on the city leaders’ deliberation of a strategy to convert three lots between Santa Cruz and Oak Grove avenues into 345 to 483 affordable units.
While holding off on declaring the lots exempt surplus land that would allow for development, the council voted unanimously for the city to seek request for qualifications from developers interested in building units on those parcels.
Those against the city using the lots contend that losing those vehicle spaces would hurt downtown businesses. They have urged the city to consider other public property such as Civic Center parking lots and Burgess Park on which to place new housing.
Housing advocates, however, have countered that delaying development on the downtown lots jeopardizes affordable units from getting built at all. They also argue that building on those lots makes sense because it would put residents of new developments close to transit and reduce vehicle trips.
At the Jan. 28 meeting, former Housing Commission member Wendy McPherson voiced support for building affordable dwellings in Menlo Park but not at the expense of shops going out of business.
“I’m not in support of not being able to attract new business due to lack of parking,” McPherson said, addressing the council. “I built and ran a small business for five years in Palo Alto. I know a lot about the availability of parking. It is a make or break deal for a small retailer.”
At the same meeting, local business leader Alex Beltramo read out loud the names of each of the 116 downtown shops that oppose targeting the lots near them for housing.
“We hope you will consider alternative locations for affordable housing,” Beltramo said.
However, the city had already studied the Civic Center and parks during the yearslong housing-element process and opted not to go that route, citing the importance of preserving community and green spaces for all residents to enjoy.
Still, Schmidt wants to put the question of the Civic Center “to bed one way or the other because there’s a lot of speculation and assumption that it will work,” he said. “But I just want to explore alternative sites like our residents are asking us to. And I want to know one way or the other is it possible to be in the Civic Center and to some degree also is it possible to go to other city-managed, city-owned places. And I think if the answer is ‘no, no, no, no’ for very legitimate reasons I personally just want to hear that, and I think there are probably a couple thousand other people who want to hear it now, too.”
Mayor Drew Combs expressed willingness to deliberate housing sites further given the council’s new makeup with Schmidt and Jennifer Wise winning seats in the November elections.
“We have a new council, and so let’s revisit those discussions,” Combs said. “Maybe something might come out differently this time.”
Resident Brittani Baxter told the council that she looks forward to hearing where the conversation leads but is not in favor of building on parks.
“When we think about what we’re developing, I really think our green space should be at the very bottom of that list again,” Baxter said.
She recalled strong community objection to putting housing on parks that arose when it was broached previously during the housing-element effort, including the launch of the Save Menlo Park Green Spaces petition in 2021 signed by about 2,500 people.
She predicts similar resistance to rise up again if talks about turning parks into houses continue.
“I feel a little bit like I’m having déjà vu,” Baxter said. “There was a lot of public discussion around it, and it was really uniformly negative. … But obviously, I would expect that if this does come up further we would see that same kind of debate get reignited.”
Schmidt would welcome that engagement, saying, “I’m not afraid of people protecting green space, coming out and voicing their opinion.”
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Looking for the city to help better explain to the community at large how the state mandated housing element is forcing Menlo Park to add housing based on the number of jobs in Menlo Park. If Menlo Park gets more jobs we need to find more places to add housing.
Who is Menlo Park’s biggest employers and are they contributing enough to support the housing element and what can be done to have net neutral housing with business development?
If MP wants to stop having to force more housing on us, they need to stop approving new office space. We need a moratorium on new office construction until housing has caught up. If we don’t we will be in a never ending loop of trying to provide more and more housing.
That’s true – and we’ll probably have to look far more closely at mixed projects as well since commercial is 4-10x denser when it comes to “inhabitants” than residential. One challenge is that Menlo Park has a lot of “vested” commercial space already, that is targeted for residential overlays.
The people urging consideration of the Civic Center are not talking about Burgess Park or recreational facilities. They are talking about the Civic Center parking lots and administrative structures which are adjacent to Burgess Park.