Council To Identify Public Benefits

The City of Menlo Park is working with Facebook to find a mutually beneficial development agreement Tuesday, a process that will result in a legally binding document that will define how the company can use land, among other things. 

City staff said council members are scheduled to refine the parameters of the agreement to address items that would benefit the city financially and socially.

“In general, the negotiating team would focus on the public ideas in which there was the greatest overlap between the City’s need and the Project Sponsor’s interest in the particular topic,” states a report prepared for council.

The social media company is the old Sun Microsystems headquarters in which its employees now work. The project is still in the and has not been approved by the city, a fact that councilmembers may use as leverage Tuesday.

Facebook is asking the city to amend the conditional development permit that restricts the amount of employees they can place on the land. The social media company would swap that employee cap on the land for a , a traffic reduction initiative without precedent in Menlo Park. The company also wants to finalize specific conditions for the development that will define how they can use the land at .

In return for altering the conditional development permit, city staff are recommending that the company “provide one-time items in the form of public improvements or studies that would benefit the surrounding area” and “provide a mechanism for funding programs and services that meet on-going community needs,” according to public documents.

Council will discuss these issues and others during their regular meeting which begins at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers, located at 701 Laurel.  

You can find the full agenda for the meeting here.

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