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At its annual priority-setting workshop on Saturday, March 22, the Menlo Park City Council agreed to prioritize revitalizing downtown Menlo Park for the upcoming fiscal year. The priorities established during this session will help allocate staff time, resources and shape the city’s fiscal year 2025-26 budget, scheduled for adoption in June.
Since the council chose not to remove any of last year’s priorities, Menlo Park will now have five areas of focus: Climate action – mitigation, adaptation, and resilience; downtown revitalization; emergency and disaster preparedness; housing; and safe routes
These priorities are listed alphabetically rather than by importance. During the meeting, there was some confusion around the meaning of “safe routes.” Assistant City Manager Stephen Stolte clarified that the term refers to citywide transportation initiatives, not exclusively the safe routes to school program.
Ahead of the workshop, a city survey collected resident input on potential priorities. Of the 544 responses, 31% supported downtown revitalization, 23% opposed proposed parking lot developments and preferred considering alternative sites, and 15% advocated for quiet zones along Caltrain.
Stolte assured the council that efforts to establish Caltrain quiet zones were already “well underway.”
Mayor Drew Combs initiated the priority discussion, stating, “There’s a saying, ‘if everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority,’ but if you keep the priorities the same every year, does that have a similar effect?” Combs encouraged the council to identify areas where additional attention could yield significant benefits.
Despite these priorities, Stolte noted that most city staff would continue focusing primarily on core municipal services. Priority areas will mainly guide decisions about capital improvements and targeted projects.
Vice Mayor Betsy Nash initially proposed adding downtown revitalization as a new priority. “I think it’s something that came out in the public feedback and we’ve heard time and time again,” Nash said. “We have so much going on downtown; we really need an overall focus. I believe we need a new vision or perspective on what it will take to make downtown vibrant, to make it work.”
She suggested evaluating all aspects of downtown infrastructure, including medians, sidewalks, roadways, greenery and removing outdated phone booths and refurbishing kiosks.
“We really need to put everything on the table and take a look at what is the best use of the space, what will drive residents, customers and visitors to downtown, and have our businesses thrive,” Nash added. She also recommended reviewing zoning restrictions but discouraged naming the priority anything explicitly linked to economic development, as the city cannot control private property or businesses directly.
All council members immediately supported Nash’s proposal. Council member Jeff Schmidt suggested reorganizing existing priorities and adding specific initiatives. He also supported downtown revitalization as a broader economic revitalization effort.
Council member Cecilia Taylor proposed adding youth-focused initiatives as a priority.
Additionally, Schmidt recommended reconsidering restrictions on substandard lots that do not meet current size or width requirements. Combs continues to support removing some restrictions, which he proposed seven years ago.
Schmidt also suggested removing emergency preparedness from the priorities — not because of its insignificance, but because substantial progress has already been made. “When [emergency preparedness became a priority], it was new,” Schmidt said. “That feels like one that is now on a really good trajectory. So to be clear, it doesn’t mean we’re de-emphasizing it as much as it’s not as nascent as it was a year ago, and we have an amazing staff member working on it.”
Ultimately, the council decided not to remove any priorities. In previous years, the city also had five priorities.
City staff will draft a formalized version of the priorities based on the workshop discussion and present it at a future meeting.
Following priority discussions, the council reviewed two downtown street closures: Ryans Lane and a section of Santa Cruz Avenue.
Ryans Lane, temporarily closed due to outdoor dining at Carpaccio and ongoing construction at Clark’s Oyster Bar, will reopen once construction concludes.
A block of Santa Cruz Avenue was closed in 2020 to create community space and expand outdoor dining. However the three restaurants — Left Bank, Bistro Vida, and Loretta — no longer use the street closure area as outdoor dining. All outdoor dining is where former parking spaces used to be. The previously closed segment is now unused.
Council members Jennifer Wise and Combs supported reopening this portion of Santa Cruz Avenue to vehicle traffic, though Wise noted potential reconsideration of a permanent closure in the future.
The city council instructed staff to prepare information for a longer discussion.
It’s so insulting and disappointing to see climate action as a priority for the Menlo Park City Council. There is nothing that the council can do to affect the climate. The council should prioritize matters that its citizens care about and that are actually within its ability to affect, like housing policy and the current disastrous plans for downtown.
Totally agree. They might as well just rename climate action to “Virtue Signaling” so they don’t confuse themselves with why it’s one of their five number one priorities ;).
It is great that Menlo Park continues to lead on taking action against climate change.
We have more resources than most of the world in our wealthy town, so seeing our City step up to lead, to help show the way for the rest of the state, country and world into a sustainable future, it fills me with pride.
We should all be proud of Menlo Park.