Tonight: Menlo Park council to discuss minimum wage ordinance, Facebook’s ‘Willow Village’

The Menlo Park City Council has a busy agenda set for its meeting tonight (May 7), including a discussion of a possible minimum wage ordinance and a study session on Facebook’s large new “Willow Village” development proposal.

Minimum wage ordinance

According to a staff report, crafting a minimum wage ordinance could take as many as 1,941 hours of staff time and 18 months to implement, at which point the state’s minimum wage laws will have already raised the minimum wage to $14 an hour.

There are ways to streamline the process, according to the report. The city could adopt a minimum wage ordinance passed in other communities. It could also cut down the amount of public outreach to a couple of information sessions.

If the council opts to move forward with an ordinance, it will be brought back on the city’s work plan.

Under state law, the minimum wage is currently $11 an hour for businesses with 25 or fewer employees and $12 per hour for businesses with 26 or more employees. The minimum wage is set to rise $1 an hour each year to $15 through 2023. Starting in 2024, the minimum wage will rise to $15 plus the increase in the consumer price index, which would be capped at 3.5% per year.

Previous coverage:

● February 2018: Menlo Park launches year with new set of priorities

● October 2018: Menlo Park: Minimum wage ordinance on hold

● December 2018: Menlo Park: New mayor’s priorities include affordable housing, Caltrain track separation plan

Facebook ‘Willow Village’

The City Council will also host a study session on Facebook’s “Willow Village” project, a development proposal to build 1.75 million square feet of office space, 1,500 housing units, up to 200,000 square feet of retail space, and a hotel with 200 to 250 rooms on a 60-acre parcel currently occupied by about 1 million square feet of office and warehouse buildings on its 50-plus-acre property covering addresses 1350 to 1390 Willow Road, 925 to 1098 Hamilton Avenue, and 1005 to 1275 Hamilton Court. Two hundred and twenty-five of the housing units would be designated for below-market-rate rent by members of the public.

In February, Facebook submitted its revised plans for the project, reconfiguring the space for “better integration.”

The council is expected to weigh in on the topics of site access and circulation, public-access open space, the mix of land uses, the timing of various parts of the project, and community amenities.

Previous coverage:

● July 2017: Facebook unveils plans for giant new development in Menlo Park

● February 2018: Menlo Park: Questions fly on Facebook’s ‘Willow Village’ campus

● March 2018: Tuesday: Facebook’s ‘Willow Village’ gets closer look

● February 2019: Facebook submits revised plans for Willow Village

If you go

The council meeting is set to start at 5:30 p.m. with an awards ceremony for the Menlo Park youth poetry contest, and the study session on Facebook’s Willow Village plan is set to begin at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at 701 Laurel St. in the Menlo Park Civic Center.

Access the meeting agenda here or watch it online here.