Menlo Watch: Wanted -- Residents' help on Menlo Park budget Menlo Watch: Wanted -- Residents' help on Menlo Park budget (February 09, 2005)

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

With the city of Menlo Park projected to run a deficit until fiscal year 2012-13, the City Council is turning to residents for help.

At the suggestion of Councilman Andy Cohen, the council agreed February 1 to create a 10-member ad hoc committee to provide ideas for easing the budget woes. Members could include, for example, a local auditor or someone who has applied for a slot on a city commission.

The budget process for 2005-06 is expected to proceed much as it has in recent years, with council members mulling over making cuts, raising fees, and drawing money from reserves.

The following year, though, the council would use the committee as part of a new process, working with the public to see what services residents would want to keep and how much they'd be willing to pay.

The council asked City Manager David Boesch to come up with suggested committee members.

Meanwhile, the council will take the next step in the 2005-06 budget process with a discussion of its major project priorities on March 5.
Final Menlo dog-park vote is scheduled

After holding off to give the public more time to see what a proposed off-leash dog area would look like, the Menlo Park City Council may give final approval February 8 to creating off-leash sites at Willow Oaks and Nealon parks.

Instead of voting on the plan last month, the council authorized installing flags and signs for 30 days around the perimeter of the 20,000-square-foot area designated for a dog park at Willow Oaks.

As of last week, city staff members said they had received three responses from the public about Willow Oaks, two in favor and one requesting changes to the plan.

Under the plan, the already-fenced ball field at Nealon would also be used for a dog park. Off-leash hours would run from 8 to 10 a.m. weekdays at Nealon and from 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to dusk at Willow Oaks.

The February 8 meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at 701 Laurel St.
Council to vote on two-story addition

A plan to build a two-story addition to a home at 30 La Loma Drive is coming before the Menlo Park City Council on February 8 after neighbors voiced concerns that the addition would harm their privacy.

The addition would encroach 9 feet and 6 inches into the required 20-foot rear yard setback, so the project requires a variance. The Planning Commission denied the variance in November, so the applicants, Robert Carlson and Stacy Starcher, have appealed to the council.

City staff members are recommending that the council approve the variance. They say the unusual triangular shape of the lot constrains project design, and that the applicants have redesigned the windows on the second floor to minimize impacts to the neighbors, associate planner Julie Thompson wrote in a staff report.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at 701 Laurel St.

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