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2025 was a year of change in Menlo Park: new restaurants opened, long-planned development sites moved from concept to approval, downtown parking became the subject of a lawsuit and a future ballot measure, and city leaders spent much of the year navigating state housing requirements. Major choices were made and the city will be forever impacted by 2025.
Housing and development
2025 was not a quiet year in Menlo Park: Beginning in January, there was one major topic on the minds of residents and city councilmembers: housing, and complying with state housing law.
Sunset magazine campus
In March 2024, Menlo Park’s housing element was finally certified after the City Council approved amendments. However, Menlo Park did not escape “unscathed,” as Mayor Betsy Nash put it: the city received two builder’s remedy applications. While one did not have any major movement in 2025, Willow Park, a proposed development at the former headquarters of Sunset magazine promising 665 housing units and more than 390,000 square feet of commercial space, moved forward.
In November 2025, Menlo Park deemed the project ineligible for streamlined approval and builder’s remedy. If the project is not subject to builder’s remedy, it would have to comply with many of Menlo Park’s zoning regulations, which would likely kill the project in its current form. However, the developer and local advocates have signaled they are not backing down without a fight: YIMBY Law, an advocacy group, reported Menlo Park to the California Department of Housing and Community Development and to the California Attorney General’s Office. .
Parking lot affordable housing
As part of its housing element, Menlo Park said it would build at least 345 affordable housing units on downtown parking lots. However, business owners and some community members formed a group in opposition to the plan called Save Downtown Menlo. By the end of 2024 and into early 2025, Save Downtown Menlo had launched a petition to stop the project, started fundraising for a legal defense fund and organized people to show up at council meetings.
It did not stop in 2025. In April, Save Downtown Menlo sued the city of Menlo Park, claiming that the city did not have the right to develop the parking lots. However, later in the year, it voluntarily dropped the lawsuit as the city had not taken final action to approve the development and so Save Downtown Menlo could focus on its citizen initiative.
Save Downtown Menlo launched a citizen initiative for a ballot measure to require that any plan to reduce the availability of parking go to a citywide vote. The citizen initiative was launched in May and had received more than enough signatures by October. In December, the city decided to let the initiative go before voters instead of adopting it outright after commissioning a $165,000 study.
The initiative will go before voters in November 2026.
SRI development
A proposal to build 646 residential units at the former headquarters of SRI was approved by the City Council in October. The developer, Lane Partners, agreed to cap non-residential square footage at 1 million square feet, which includes 287,000 square feet in existing buildings that will remain and 40,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.
Lane Partners will also dedicate a 1.6-acre plot to an affordable housing developer to build no more than 154 affordable housing units.
Lane Partners left open the opportunity to add additional housing units after removing 380,000 square feet of office and research space.
USGS Campus
Presidio Bay Ventures, the group behind Springline, purchased the former headquarters of the U.S. Geological Survey at 345 Middlefield Road for $137,000,006. While no plans have been formally submitted, Presidio Bay Ventures has started meeting with residents to discuss ideas for how to change the space into a mixed-use development.
Commercial space
According to a report to the Menlo Park City Council, commercial vacancy rates in downtown Menlo Park are the highest they have been in a decade even though asking rates are the lowest in the past 10 years.
Despite this, Menlo Park saw several high-profile new restaurants come to Menlo Park.
In January, Eylan, a Cal-Indian restaurant by the owners of Ettan in Palo Alto, opened in the Stanford Middle Plaza. Not even a year after opening, Eylan was added to the Michelin Guide after receiving a Bib Gourmand and a Special Award for exceptional cocktails.
In February, Bistro Vida owner Ali El Safy opened Bar Loretta next to Bistro Vida. Safy hoped the bar would be a place for young people to gather and be less formal than his sit-down restaurant.
In June, Ren Omakase opened at 403 El Camino Real. The Japanese omakase restaurant was created by veteran restaurant owner Sunny Noah, who had already opened three other omakase restaurants on the Peninsula.
In October, Café Vivant opened in downtown Menlo Park. The restaurant serves heritage chickens from Corvus Farm in Pescadero.
All and all, Menlo Park saw at least 10 new restaurants or cafes in 2025. That’s not to say there were not some closures, most notably, Italian restaurant Ristorante Carpaccio closed after 36 years in Menlo Park.
600 block of Santa Cruz Avenue
The City Council decided to keep the eastbound side of the 600 block of Santa Cruz Avenue closed to vehicular traffic. While the future of the block is still to be determined, for now, the city planned to order contemporary furniture and solicit public feedback on how to make the block inviting for all residents, especially students at nearby schools who have used the closure as a hangout space after school.
Belle Haven Community Center
In 2024, the Belle Haven Community Center opened and city leaders hoped it would be a “jewel” in the community. However, 2025 saw major challenges caused by the community center.
In May, users of the senior center at the Belle Haven Community Center said it felt the center was not made with them in mind. Some of the many issues included hard-to-use chairs, tripping hazards, inaccessible restrooms and unclear emergency plans.
Additionally, Menlo Park’s pool operator, Team Sheeper, threatened to leave the city after Team Sheeper said it was set to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars due to lower than expected attendance at the Belle Haven pool. In order to keep Team Sheeper from leaving, the City Council agreed to provide additional funds, in addition to continuing to pay for some pool operations and provide the facilities.
