Downtown Plan is Focus at Tonight's Council Meeting

In the works since 2007, the city’s El Camino Real/Downtown Plan is expected to draw considerable scrutiny at tonight’s meeting of the Menlo Park City Council.

Planners released a fiscal impact analysis of the plan, which includes fire, school and other special districts.

The fiscal analysis discloses impacts but is not a mandate for action, associate planner Thomas Rogers writes.

The plan was conceived “during a severe global economic downturn,” but “assumes the economy will recover over time, and that performance of revenues and expenses will be generally in keeping with longer-term economic patterns,” the report says.

Key findings include these:

• Upon full buildout, development is projected to generate $2.17 million in new General Fund revenues.
• A hefty 60 percent of new revenue will come from hotel tax, also called Transient Occupancy Tax.
• A move from street parking to new garages will create “significant increases,” although fees could offset them to some degree.
• If both garages but no hotels are built, the project would go into the red.

Not everyone is applauding the promised cash flow.

Critics include Nancy Couperus, a member of the Live Oak Lions Club, which sponsors the Farmers Market, which has been drawing people to the downtown area since its inception in 1992.

The plan, if realized in its current incarnation, “would absolutely impact the Farmers Market by removing some 68 nearby parking spaces,” she said. “That is our primary concern - the loss of easy, convenient parking. We also worry about access if Chestnut is closed off from Santa Cruz Avenue.”

The city has held numerous public meetings and solicited comments throughout the planning process.

Visit the city planning website  to read up on the plan and the fiscal impact analysis.

The Menlo Park City Council meets at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 701 Laurel St.