A Strong Foundation
Menlo Park’s extraordinary assets serve as a strong foundation for building an even better place to live.
- Beautiful and safe residential neighborhoods
- Top-notch schools
- Excellent location
- Strong regional economy
- Fine weather
- Sound city financials
- Progressive city government and city council
- Hundreds of new young families
- Thousands of residents who love their city
A Great Opportunity
Menlo Park now has a tremendous one-time opportunity to use two planned multi-use commercial developments as catalysts for dramatically transforming our central business districts into vibrant, well-integrated hubs of economic and social activities. Stanford and Greenheart will invest a combined hundreds of million of dollars in developments that will attract several hundred young professional residents and thousands of workers who will, in turn, attract more visitors to Menlo Park. It would be foolish to squander this unique opportunity. Menlo Park should not try to shape its business districts in the mold of Palo Alto, Mountain View and other neighboring cities. Instead, success lies in defining and implementing it’s own unique character. The Vision Planning process produced many worthy design concepts, and the Specific Plan provides an excellent regulatory framework for moving forward. Now Menlo Park needs its city council and residents to step up to the many challenges and develop concrete plans for specific “game-changing” improvements. Making Menlo Park a much better place to live by 2018 is a worthy and doable goal, and there will NOT be better time than 2015 to make real progress.
Implementing The Specific Plan
During the planning process Menlo Park identified many good ideas for improving our central business districts. Now it needs to develop a DOABLE multi-year implementation plan that includes a budget and funding sources. It must also identify the privately funded public benefits that should be negotiated with commercial developers.
Projects Already Approved, Sumitted Or In Planning Stage
Property owners are currently investing in several new projects in the El Camino Real zoning district.
- Marriott Residence Inn at 500 Glenwood (Approved)
- Extensive renovations at the Menlo Park Inn (1312 ECR) and Mermaid Inn (727 ECR) motels (Approved)
- Lane Partners office building at 1020 Alma Street (Plans Submitted Dec. 2014)
- Greenheart multi-use development at 1300 block ECR (Planning Stage)
- Stanford multi-use development at 500 block ECR (Planning Stage)
- New Restaurant at 1090 ECR, the former British Bankers Club)(Planning Stage)
- Hunter Properties Residential Units at 133 Encinal, former Reynold’s Nursery (Planning Stage)
Top Five Public Investment Opportunities
Closer Looks
Our blog posts provide in-depth factual analysis of specific opportunities like better/more parking in the Santa Cruz Avenue business district, plus the opportunity for you to submit your own ideas and comments. Go for it!