Local Addresses Traffic and the Downtown Plan in Menlo Park

(Submitted by Kimberly LeMieux)

To the citizens of Menlo Park:

Traffic! It is a concern of every city in the Bay Area and Menlo Park is no different. 

But we can't allow fear to get in the way of progress. 

Menlo Park has been caught up in a debate for the last 10+ years as to how best to develop our downtown area and end the blight that plagues us - however traffic concerns are always a major stumbling block. 

The Downtown Specific Plan (DTSP), which took over 6 years to develop and included an Environmental Impact Report, hundreds of hours of public meetings, and a tremendous amount of analysis by Menlo Park staff, paid consultants and city planning experts, is being threatened by a small minority of residents who want you to believe that they know what is better for Menlo Park. 

While I appreciate the passion the Lanza/Fry (Save Menlo) group has for our city, I cannot believe that their initiative--formulated behind closed doors without any public input or analysis--can be in our best interest. 

Their initiative does nothing to guarantee less traffic and, in reality, it may well result in dramatically higher traffic. 

The Lanza/Fry initiative seeks a low cap on office space, the net effect of which will be to shift development toward smaller office projects, like medical office, with very high traffic demands, away from larger, mixed use development that purposefully balances retail, office (non-medical), and housing. 

The fact that their initiative ignores this intention, and all the analysis that went into it, is very scary and will no doubt end up with a lot of unintended consequences, including potentially WORSE traffic. 

I urge you to take the time to consider all aspects of this debate and join me in rejecting this ill-conceived initiative. 

It is a deeply flawed, "keep-it-vacant" effort in disguise. 

Signed, Kimberly LeMieux
Menlo Park
And 11 other Menlo Park Residents