Menlo Park: Officials seek comment on downtown dreams Menlo Park: Officials seek comment on downtown dreams (June 15, 2005)

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

If you're going to redesign a major chunk of your city's downtown, you probably want to hear from as many residents as possible.

So city officials will work to gather a wide swathe of public input on four plans for bringing vitality to the area around Menlo Park's train station and the Santa Cruz Avenue/El Camino Real intersection.

A Power Point presentation on the plans will be posted on the city Web site at menlopark.org. The city's commissions will also study them, Mayor Mickie Winkler said at a June 7 City Council study session.

At its annual priority-setting in January, the council would then decide whether to budget money for the effort, she added.

The plans were created by teams of architects at a brainstorming session in April. They include such options as combined retail and residential space, a movie theater and arts center and new parks.

The architects also looked at possibilities for reconfiguring the city's rail crossings, including raising and lowering the tracks.

At the study session, the council focused more on what to do next rather than on the details of the plans. But residents had some remarks.

Milton Borg, who owns the 7-Eleven building at Oak Grove Avenue and Alma Street near the train tracks, said he was concerned that not all the plans would retain his building, due to reconfiguring the rail crossings.

"Part of this was fairy tales," he said of the dream-filled brainstorming. "We need to look at who's going to be affected."

Mr. Borg also voiced concern that some of the plans called for moving bus traffic east of the tracks, along Alma. He said Alma had been studied years ago for buses but rejected because it was too narrow.

Carol Schumacher, co-owner of the Mid-Peninsula Animal Hospital on Merrill Street, also said she was worried about the plans' effects on her track-side hospital. She added that she hears a tremendous level of train noise and that this could make building homes near the tracks imprudent.

Planning Commissioner Matt Henry added his own two cents, suggesting building a pedestrian bridge over bustling El Camino, perhaps at Santa Cruz.

"I think that'd be pretty sharp," he said.
INFORMATION

A staff report on the plans is available at menlopark.org. Click on "City Council" and go to the June 7 agenda.

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