Editor,
Those residents and business owners in Menlo Park who are currently opposing the city’s recent proposal to use three of its downtown parking lots for affordable housing are jumping to conclusions about how such development could be accomplished. They visualize losing all that existing parking, but that does not need to be the case.
The city of San Carlos decided a while ago to put housing at one of its downtown parking lots, but they did it smart. They offered the surface parking lot to a developer gratis if it would work in partnership with the city to build new housing while also designing the site for public parking. The result was Wheeler Plaza located just behind the businesses on Laurel Street. In exchange for the free site, the developer built a structure that includes four floors of housing over one floor of underground parking for the building residents and two floors of above ground public parking for the community. Yes, some parking was lost during construction, however, after completion, the city actually gained 50% more public parking spaces that now serves the businesses on Laurel Street.Â
Perhaps the Menlo Park City Council needs to reach out to the opponents of their plan and explain how such a win-win solution could occur in Menlo Park.
David Crabbe
San Carlos
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