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A multi-use skyscraper proposal in Menlo Park has scored a big boost after California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter to the city alleging that it violated state housing laws to prevent the controversial project from advancing.
Citing findings in the notice, the project’s developer has threatened to sue the city.
Since 2023, the developer N17 has been pursuing the towering, multi-building mixed-use community on the former Sunset Magazine headquarters at 80 Willow Road in the Linfield Oaks neighborhood. City leaders and residents have fought it at every turn, contending, among other reasons, that the project is way out of scale and character for the area.
But in a 10-page letter to the city dated July 29, Bonta expressed concern that Menlo Park “has not handled the application in accordance with the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022,” also known as Assembly Bill 2011.
Bonta in his letter did not explicitly order Menlo Park to let the proposal move forward but admonished the city for the alleged violations, including improperly adding reasons to justify its initial determination that the project was not eligible for streamlined approval under AB 2011.
N17 founder Oisín Heneghan welcomed Bonta’s notice.
“The attorney general has made clear that Menlo Park cannot continue moving the goalposts or requiring a housing applicant to bankroll the city’s own resistance to approving housing,” Heneghan said in a news release. “The state has now rejected every remaining legal basis the city asserted for denying streamlined approval.”
In an email to The Almanac, Heneghan said, “We are actively working with the city on finalizing the project approvals.”
He did not elaborate on that statement when asked whether the city indicated to him a willingness to move the project forward.
Menlo Park is reviewing Bonta’s notice.
“The city is evaluating the opinions expressed in the AG notice regarding the manner in which the AG believes the city should handle the development application for the 80 Willow project,” Menlo Park said in a statement. “The city will continue to evaluate the application and the AG’s notice.”
N17 released updated renderings of its proposal for a large multi-use development proposal at 80 Willow Road. Courtesy N17. 
N17 released updated renderings of its proposal for a large multi-use development proposal at 80 Willow Road. Courtesy N17. 
N17 released updated renderings of its proposal for a large multi-use development proposal at 80 Willow Road. Courtesy N17.
The project would feature 665 new homes, including 100 affordable units, as well as retail and office space, a sports club, a hotel, a preschool, a public plaza and other amenities.
The project’s tallest building could reach 458 feet, according to information from the city website.
Bonta’s notice to Menlo Park was first reported Monday, Aug. 3, by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Almanac obtained copies of the notice through a state Public Records Act request and from Heneghan.
In his notice, Bonta pointed out that the developer submitted a revised application for streamlined approval to address the city’s initial determination that the project was inconsistent with certain aspects of AB 2011’s site and development standards for mixed-income housing.
Menlo Park was still unsatisfied with the resubmittal as it cited additional inconsistencies, the notice said, but AB 2011 prohibits the city from making new findings not identified previously.
The city also violated the state Housing Accountability Act (HAA) by failing to give the project the protections afforded to it under a state provision called builder’s remedy, the notice said.
Builder’s remedy allows developers to bypass local land-use rules when cities fail to garner state approval for their long-range housing plan. Menlo Park had yet to gain state certification for its housing plan when N17 first proposed the development now dubbed Willow Park.
In addition, Bonta alleged in his notice that Menlo Park violated HAA by wrongfully requiring the developer to pay for the city’s legal costs involving the review process.
“To date, Menlo Park has billed the applicant $302,938 for legal fees alone,” the developer said in its news release.
In the wake of Bonta’s notice, the developer through a lawyer notified Menlo Park of its intent to file a lawsuit to force the city to move the project along.
“The city’s unlawful actions are summarized in” Bonta’s notice, attorney David Blackwell said in an Aug. 3 letter to Menlo Park.
Citing Bonta’s findings, Blackwell in his letter contended that the city must approve the project within 90 days from the date of the notice – or by Oct. 27. The city is also obligated to refund the developer the legal costs related to the project’s review, he said.
The City Council is scheduled to discuss the potential lawsuit in closed session Wednesday, Aug. 5.
In his August newsletter to the community, Councilmember Drew Combs addressed Bonta’s notice.
“The attorney general’s letter marks a new phase in a process that had largely stalled because of the developer’s refusal to fund an environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA),” Combs said. “It is also worth noting that the project is proposed for an environmentally sensitive site along San Francisquito Creek and would require the demolition of the historically significant former Sunset Magazine headquarters.”
Bonta’s notice does not compel Menlo Park to clear the project, Combs also said.
“The attorney general’s letter is not a binding legal ruling,” Combs said. “In fact, the letter does not clearly identify what specific process or outcome the attorney general believes the city should pursue. Is the state actually suggesting that the city approve a project of this scale without any additional analysis? That is an important question, and one that deserves greater clarity.”
He added, “Even with that clarity, however, the attorney general’s opinion does not dictate the ultimate outcome or eliminate the city’s ability to pursue any legal or procedural remedies that are available.”
Patti Fry, a former planning commissioner and longtime resident who opposes the project, criticized Bonta’s take.
“I find it bizarre that the state AG is taking the city to task for wanting to protect our community by evaluating the project’s environmental impacts,” Fry said in an email to this publication. “AG Bonta casts a blind eye to the fact that with no environmental impact report this developer may not attempt any mitigation whatsoever for the myriad impacts on the creek area, street congestion citywide, noise and light impacts on nearby homes, the ability of this small suburban town to provide big-city services and infrastructure to such an enormous project, etc.”
Does the historical designation of Sunset campus impact AG Bonta’s rebuke to the city at all?
https://www.almanacnews.com/menlo-park/2025/05/13/sunset-magazine-hq-advances-toward-historic-status-complicating-665-unit-development/
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Hey Rob Bonta, where do you live? Maybe this should be re-located to your backyard!
He lives in Alameda, which has banned the construction of multi-family apartment buildings and restricted development almost entirely to single-family homes and duplexes for decades. And all proposed developments — which do not include skyscrapers — are planned for the other side of Alameda. Definitely not in his backyard.
Yes, and same applies to Newsom. Put high skyrise buildings in their backyards which will also take away their privacy.
Bonta is up for reelection in November and time to vote him out of power.
Exactly! And that may be why he gave the city a deadline of one week before November 3rd! Vote him out!
Agreed!
I am a lifelong democrat and hate what’s going on in D.C. but it is time to for a change in California and to give some republicans a chance, starting with the governor. What has happened to the Democratic Party is disgraceful.
I agree MP Homeowner! They aren’t recognizable as Democrats anymore. This is the danger of having a one-party state–there’s no checks on power. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. For starters, let’s see what Governor Hilton and Attorney General Michael Gates can do to turn things around for California.
For one thing, Hilton would be likely to veto the Scott Wiener-type egregious bills that are destroying our suburbs.
California already has limited resources to take care of its current population. Menlo Park and other California cities will start looking and feeling more like New York City. Unfortunately, several California Democratic politicians have written or supported harmful California policies. Then they do nothing to try to fix them and don’t respond to people’s inquiries. Newsom and Bonta should visit Menlo Park and other adjacent cities and hold several town hall meetings rather than write a warning letter. These massive housing projects will still be very expensive to own or rent. I read a proposed project in Palo Alto will have one bedroom and one bathroom studio apartments for rent at $3600+ per month. Not everyone will want or use the extra amenities but will still be forced to pay for them against their wishes. Newsom’s housing mandates don’t address the negative impacts. Instead, they are one size fits all.
It’s not Newsom, it’s Becker and Berman and the rest who coast to Sacramento because we reflexively pull the local (D) lever every election. No, this is our own fault.
For people so concerned about “NIMBYs”, they’re certainly not making their case by presenting the two options as “no housing at all” and “ridiculous gigantic skyscrapers”, which do you think most people are going to choose if those are their choices? I don’t know a single person in this city who supports this project. I completely agree with other commenters: time to get rid of Bonta.
I don’t know that any other AG would have said anything different. His job is to determine what the current law is, period, and the current law is terrible. Start with the legislature.
An additional data point: The Mercury News reported today that state housing laws put Menlo Park at risk of penalties of $6.65 Million in penalties if the developer wins this lawsuit over illegal delays. Combs and the rest of the dullards on the city council knew full well the “Builder’s Remedy” was looming and they still failed to get a housing plan submitted and approved. Menlo Park has no legal standing to deny this project under state law and they know it. That’s why they keep making up excuses for not moving it forward. They screwed up, and we’re all going to pay for it.
Menlo Park and dozens of other Bay Area cities submitted their sixth cycle Housing Elements well in advance of the deadline. But the laws had changed — apparently most cities were unaware — and the state repeatedly required these cities to revise their Housing Element plans, opening the door to Builders Remedy projects throughout the state. Largely because of state delays, 96% of Bay Area cities did not have an approved plan by the January 2023 deadline
Was approval deliberately delayed to support Builders Remedy projects? I don’t know, but it’s interesting that the spate of recent pro-developer legislation has been funded by tech billionaires, notably the co-founders of Stripe.
Love the liberal oats of CA voters complete ignorance being sewn. You get what you deserve. Unfortunately, all we all have to pay the price. Thanks for that.
Of course the state backs it. Developers have paid them to back it. Developers paid them to put the law in place to begin with. This is what happens when one party controls the state for 30 years.
This disastrous situation is what happens when Menlo Park city council and staff consistently obstruct reasonable housing development in the city.
This project is horrible for our community, but it is only happening because because the city failed to have a valid housing element.
This isn’t an affordable housing project by any means: it’s another mixed use development with way too many jobs and just a speck of high cost condos because Sacramento can’t do basic math, or just ignores it because labor got them in and keeps them there. YIMBY won’t talk about jobs to housing ratios, ‘don’t look under the hood folks, it’s a “housing project”, run along you bad NIMBYs.’The project will create way more jobs than housing units. Using Builder’s Remedy for mixed use is disgraceful and Bonta cheering it on proves he’s complicit or a dimwit or both. The construction and real estate lobby has effed up the state beyond repair. If this were an honest affordable housing project, that would be one thing. Becker gets this even. Shaming Menlo Park residents over this project is beyond stupid, nobody deserves this hotel and office eyesore in their backyard. Trauss is a self described anarchist that seems to instead delight in inflicting pain using heavy-handed state power. Show some common sense and decency rather than the gaslighting and Alinsky tactics.