Too bad Parkline isn't also willing to discuss reducing the size of the offices or the number of people who would work in the offices they want to build. Menlo Park doesn't need more office space.
If the project does not supply more residences built than workers arriving, our town will be faced with ever more demands (dictates?) to build a lot more housing than the town council is already struggling to locate.

The challenge is that Parkline only cares about office space, and doesn't care about the impact on the city because they're here for the short-term. Their job is to distract the city by (grudgingly) accommodating the requests for housing, which is all the council cares about at the moment.

@Iris -- in 2023, we try to avoid thinking about the consequences of our actions. In the past, the council often rejected some otherwise terrific projects because those projects might be disastrous for the city over the longer term. Our current council does not want to repeat those mistakes, and thus they refuse to do any big picture strategizing or long-term planning. This year's mantra is "more housing, the denser the better" and if all hell breaks loose in 2030 because of decisions made today, well, que sera sera.

Have to agree with @Frozen. The current City Council, with the exception of Council Member Combs, is aggressively working to maximizing the city's population and promulgate their vision of social and economic justice, all at the expense of current families, schools, traffic, property values and open spaces etc.

As I understand it, Menlo's requirement for additional housing from 2023 to 2031 represents a 20% increase in the housing supply. Our City Council, however, is targeting to surpass the requirement by 2.5 times and increase the number of housing units by 50% during the eight-year period!

Can you imagine driving or biking down El Camino, Ravenswood, Willow, Santa Cruz, Valpraiso, Middle, Olive, Oak, and Oakdell etc once the City Council, Planning Commission, Menlo Together, and developers all have their way and increase the number of households by 50%?

The more housing the better. Californians need places to live. Here and everywhere else.
I only wish that the number of offices was smaller, and that the new development contained meaningful amount of retail to make some of the neighborhoods east of Middlefield more walkable. Would be great, for example, to have a small grocery store and cafe or two.
Since the development is right across from MA, some retail options for the students would be great as well.

How will traffic be able to accommodate this? Before Covid, Facebook traffic was so bad during peak hours that Willows residents could not get out of their driveways. Facebook will eventually return to campus, and there will be a huge new development there. Add in the opening of all of the buildings on El Camino near Safeway, and Menlo Park traffic could be an absolute disaster. Why are we not considering the very real impacts to these developments? All housing additions seem to happen east of El Camino with no concern about projects already in the pipeline. This is really concerning. What is the city doing to mitigate traffic armageddon like we saw pre-Covid in the Willows?

Well, I was sitting this one out.

The logic of the Menlo Park Council's approach to housing reminds me of a slogan offered during the '1970's anti-Viet Nam war era. That is, "fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity."

Stop approving office space. That just increases housing demand. Approve sales-tax generating projects with services in Menlo Park.

(To the editor: Sorry. Re-edit as you wish.)

@local teacher A lot of people are missing the point. Our city council desperately wants us to get rid of our cars, with no regard to practicality of it. They want you to be miserable every time you have to commute to and from your single family home. Every little thing they can do to make it painful to use a vehicle in Menlo Park they have done and will do. You can bet the bank if Peter Ohtaki would have been elected in District 3 he would have had nothing to do with this nonsense. But the renters and bike commuters elected Nash and now we’re stuck with the continued degradation of family life. I wish homeowners would wake up before their investments go to dirt.

@StuartSoffer, perhaps members of the Planning Commission and City Council are intentionally promoting additional office space in an attempt to maximize Menlo Park's required new housing units?

What I don't understand is why these people choose to live in Menlo Park if it is congested cities they so desire (think Sunnyvale, Redwood City, San Mateo)?

@StuartSoffer, perhaps members of the Planning Commission and City Council are intentionally promoting additional office space in an attempt to maximize Menlo Park's required new housing units?

What I don't understand is why these people choose to live in Menlo Park if it is congested cities they so desire (think Sunnyvale, Redwood City, San Mateo)?

Not mentioned is the domino effect:

Office space -> housing -> schools -> increased taxes.


We need a new city council.

We need a council with planning experience.

Stuart:

We need a council without a "save the world" agenda.