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Politics & Government

Commissioners Delay Making Recommendations About Housing in Menlo Park

Planning Commission decides to delay recommendations amid concerns over high-density housing in the latest review of Menlo Park's state-mandated housing element.

Menlo Park’s Planning Commission decided to create a development design standards subcommittee Monday amid concerns about adding high-density housing to Menlo Park.

Their Monday meeting originally was intended to determine what kind of recommendations the commission would make about rezoning land into the city’s new housing element to City Council

A lawsuit forced the City of Menlo Park to update its state-mandated housing element, which had not been updated since 1992.  The city must produce a plan that shows it has made zoning changes that encourage construction of new, affordable homes as a part of their settlement agreement.

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At the Monday night meeting, commissioners and the public alike brought up critiques about the project, along with praise.

Highlights of the affordable housing plan:

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  • Change the land use designation at 1200 and 1300 blocks of Willow Road, 700-800 blocks of Hamilton Avenue and 3600 block of Haven Avenue for higher density housing
  • Create an Affordable Housing Overlay Zone for key sites and the El Camino Real/Downtown Specific Plan area to establish density bonuses and other incentives for affordable housing
  • Modify the R-3 zoning district to provide more infill housing in areas around the El Camino Real/downtown specific plan area by increasing the maximum density to 30 dwelling units per acre on lots 10,000 square feet or greater

Concerns brought up at the meeting:

  • Remoteness of the locations
  • Traffic
  • Fear building materials won’t be high quality enough: comment that the design looked like “a bunch of ugly boxes” and concern over “stucco percentages”
  • Environmental concerns over the potential construction on Marsh Road
  • Overloading the school system if 300 more secondary dwelling units added
  • Adding low-income housing at the 1200 and 1300 blocks of Willow Road will be a threat to public safety
  • Building high density housing would change character of town
  • Property values in the area will go down in general

 

Commissioner Vincent Bressler said the public will be shocked when they see real designs come forward. Bressler didn’t support forming a subcommittee and said the correct thing to do is to simply work with the architects.

“We don’t have the discretion or tools,” Bressler said. “The problem is we don’t even have architectural review,” he said.

Others stressed that the plan could help make Menlo Park more diverse. The changing demographic of housing today is different, leaning toward building smaller units, said a man who owns a cottage in Menlo Park.

Commissioner Henry Riggs said it would be great to reduce the minimum required size of the lot on secondary units, but asked it they could go to 5,000 square feet housing.

“I find it very ironic that we are preventively helping the Belle Haven neighborhood from taking advantage of this project,” Riggs said.

Development Services Manager, replied that there were concerns about comfort and ease and that the city could pursue them later, as they are moving the minimum size from 7,000 to 6,000 square feet.

Menlo Park's City Council will review the plan ton May 21. Commissioners Henry Riggs, Vice Chair John Kadvany and John O’Malley will serve on the subcommittee formed at last night’s meeting. Go here for more details on the plan.

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