City-Owned Land

Many city-owned parcels were eliminated from consideration due to existing uses and/or constraints, such as:

• Parks and open spaces (e.g., Nealon Park, Sharon Park),
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• Active civic facilities (e.g., Fire Station 77, Civic Center),
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• • Infrastructure facilities (e.g., Sharon Heights Pump Station, Corporation Yard),
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• Buildings with long-term leases beyond the eight-year planning period (e.g., 1000 El Camino Real),
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• Sites in City Council District 1 (e.g., Belle Haven Child Development Center, 1283 Willow Rd. lot), because of AFFH considerations and the scale and volume of (past) multi-family residential development in the district. In 2016, the City Council adopted ConnectMenlo, which focused on increased residential development in the Bayfront area,
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• Parcels too small or irregularly shaped for development (e.g., narrow rights-of-way, lots less than 0.5 acres in size),
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• Parcels with environmental constraints (e.g., sloping creekside lots).

Civic Center and Burgess Park

In 2022, the city council considered – but did not pass an ordinance – that would have removed the Civic Center from consideration, in part because an ordinance could be changed by a future council. In 2025, the revisited the idea of adding housing at the Civic Center but the lead city planner (Steve Smith) told the Council the City did not have enough time and resources to study potential sites there in the current Housing Element cycle (2023-2031)