Amid robust discourse in Menlo Park around proposed housing plans, mega-towers and downtown parking lots, Wonman Lee, a candidate for Menlo Park City Council, built a mapping tool that allows community members to visualize Menlo Park’s housing developments for themselves. The project represents a new attempt by a candidate for local office using advanced technology to illustrate policy initiatives.
Lee is running against James Rohr in the race for District 1. The winner will replace current councilmember Cecilia Taylor, who is not seeking re-election.
“Can you make Menlo Park’s housing plan work?” is a 3D, interactive map that simulates the challenging process of meeting the city’s housing goals. That includes Menlo Park’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation requirements, a state-assigned number of units Menlo Park must plan and zone for by 2031. The plan includes 740 units for very-low-income, 426 low-income, 496 moderate and 1,285 market-rate units. The resulting Housing Element is the city’s current plan for reaching its housing goals. But those concepts are arcane to some community members, Lee said. The simulator aims to gamify the complex housing policies.
“This tool is to combat some of the disinformation out there,” Lee said. “(It) maps out honestly where the projects have been, at least for our current housing element.”
Asked for comment, Lee’s opponent for the District 4 council seat critiqued the usefulness of the simulator.
“To me it appears the website and 3D simulator are AI-generated and he does not have enough information that is relevant to the issues facing District 1,” Lee said over email.
By toggling buttons, users can view what happens when certain developments are added or subtracted from the RHNA requirements. They can also view how housing developments are geographically dispersed, including where in the city’s five districts the homes are located. Additionally, they can view where a housing development is in the process: zoned for development, pending or approved, inactive in the pipeline, active in the pipeline and built.
The simulator, which became live on Oct. 14, is available on Lee’s campaign website. It has since become “by far” the most viewed page on his website, he said. A simpler version of the simulator – a map that visualizes the location of housing projects – was launched several weeks ago and also attracted many visitors, Lee said, indicating demand for housing information. That inspired Lee, a software engineer, to make the simulator.
Three buttons representing key Menlo Park issues are listed on the bottom of the project. “If Measure P passes” simulates what will happen if the citizen-initiated ballot measure passes or fails. “With Willow Village” represents Meta’s Belle Haven mega-project which was suspended indefinitely earlier this year. “With 80 Willow” mimics the housing contributions of the controversial commercial and residential project at the former Sunset Magazine campus, which has prompted litigation and a flurry of letters from state Attorney General Rob Bonta, Mayor Betsy Nash and U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo.
Lee confirmed he used artificial intelligence as one tool to build the map, noting that AI use has become standard in his profession. He also used several layered mapping tools to create the simulator: OpenStreetMap, a map software that the underlying features of the map like roads and rivers; MapLibre, a software which defines the visual appearance of a map; and CARTO, which provides the software tools and design interfaces for styling and displaying the map.
The numbers in the simulator – which contribute to the tally of housing units in the different income categories of the RHNA requirement – are pulled directly from sources on the city’s website, including the city’s July 2026 progress report toward its RHNA requirements. Dozens of other sources are listed on his website under the “housing plan” tab.
Lee said he aimed to be as unbiased as possible when making the simulator, and he continues to iterate on the project by adding features like coyotes, ducks and airplanes that are designed to mimic reality. The goal, he said, is to model a range of city processes: traffic, commute patterns and daylight plane rules that limit how tall a building can rise next to its neighbors.
