Save Downtown Menlo Park, a gaggle opposing plans to construct housing on three public parking heaps downtown, has filed a discover of intent with town, hoping to deliver the difficulty earlier than voters.
At Metropolis Corridor, at the very least 40 enterprise leaders, residents, and downtown patrons gathered Thursday afternoon to file the discover. They expressed considerations concerning the metropolis’s proposal to construct at the very least 340 housing models on Parking Plazas 1, 2, and three situated off Santa Cruz Avenue close to Maloney Lane, Chestnut Avenue and Crane Avenue.
Opponents contend the plan would eradicate over 500 parking areas, even quickly, harming small companies reliant on buyer entry.
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“This initiative simply says that any plan to diminish public parking downtown should go to the voters,” stated Alex Beltramo, a frontrunner of Save Downtown Menlo Park, in a press release. “The plazas are public assets, and the public deserves a say before they’re lost forever.”
Of their submitting, the group described downtown Menlo Park as a group hub.
“Families run errands, friends meet for coffee, and local businesses form the backbone of daily life,” they wrote. “All of this depends on easy, reliable access — including parking.”
Save Downtown Menlo Park argues that even garages would dissuade patrons from coming downtown and suggests constructing housing on the close by Civic Heart as an alternative.
Proponents of the redevelopment — together with reasonably priced housing advocates — argue that town should act swiftly to construct housing wherever doable amid an escalating housing disaster.
Earlier than the measure can seem on the poll, supporters should collect signatures from at the very least 10% of Menlo Park’s roughly 20,000 registered voters.
Save Downtown Menlo Park additionally sued town in April in an effort to dam the venture. They argue that the parking heaps are held in a “fiduciary capacity,” that means town should act as a trustee for the general public’s use — not for personal improvement.
Metropolis officers have disputed that interpretation.
A number of builders have submitted proposals for the positioning, together with Alliant Communities, Eden Housing, MidPen Housing, Path Ventures, Presidio Bay Ventures, Associated California, Alta Housing, and a joint submission by The Pacific Firms and West Improvement Companions.
All proposals embody plans to interchange or mitigate parking impacts and categorical a willingness to work with native stakeholders.
The town faces mounting strain from each state officers and native advocates to ship extra housing, particularly in high-cost cities like Menlo Park — house to tech big Meta and several other main enterprise capital corporations.
Amid a worsening statewide housing scarcity, state regulators have been intently monitoring cities’ compliance with housing mandates. Cities that fail to observe by way of on permitted housing plans — often called housing components — danger decertification, which may set off the “builder’s remedy,” a authorized provision that enables builders to bypass native zoning if at the very least 20% of the proposed models are reasonably priced.
Noncompliant cities may lose entry to important state and federal funding.
Menlo Park’s housing plan outlines efforts to construct almost 3,000 new houses by 2031. Throughout the Bay Space, cities are collectively aiming to assemble 442,000 houses in that timeframe, based on the Affiliation of Bay Space Governments.
Metropolis workers is reviewing the proposals and anticipates presenting advisable subsequent steps to town council in Might.
The analysis will take into account improvement ideas, developer {qualifications}, monetary plans, group engagement methods, and building administration approaches.
