Stanford/Arrillaga Development on El Camino Will Dump 6400+ More Cars Daily Onto El Camino in Menlo Park
Massive 4 building complex along El Camino, stretching 3 blocks from the Tesla dealership to Middle ave.
-
5 stories tall
- 440,000+ sq feet - the size of 4 Walmarts!
- Medical offices, general offices dominate. A smaller portion of housing and retail.
Mega Traffic - 23 Miles of Additional Cars
El Camino is already gridlocked most of the day. 6400 cars is the equivalent of 23 miles of cars. Imagine 23 miles of additional cars jammed onto El Camino in Menlo Park.
This development is in addition to the other developments on El Camino including, Stanford's proposed 5 story office and theater complex on El Camino in Palo Alto @University; the multi-story housing complex going up next year on the West side of El Camino between Partridge Ave and College Ave; Proposed office developments by Sobrato and other landowners for 1300 El Camino and 1400 El Camino. And the Stanford 1.5 million square foot medical complex in Redwood city.
Stanford will likely build medical offices and relocate its Welch road medical offices here. Medical offices are one of the highest traffic developments - with 10 minute appointments means that one doctor can generate - 48 patient trips per day. Stanford has a "trip cap" in Santa Clara County - they are not allowed to increase traffic there - so they are motivated to export their traffic here to Menlo Park. These are trips that are unlikely to be mitigated because sick people aren't going to carpool, take the shuttle, or bike. Plus, medical offices are open 7 - 7pm. Their extended hours mean even more traffic.
Increased Car Traffic Endangers Safety on Residential
Streets:
To avoid El Camino, on the west side, drivers will cut through the residential streets like Oak, Oakdell, Arbor, Santa Cruz, University, College, Middle, Patridge, Harvard and Cambridge.
On the east side of EL Camino, there will be increased traffic to/from 101 via Willow, Ravenswood, and Middlefield.
Zero Public Benefit
- Stanford has a $19.7 billion endowment and yet, as a nonprofit, pays no property taxes to Menlo Park. Unless it leases out this property as investment income, in which case, the lessees could pay taxes, the public services this development will use - fire, police, sewage, water - will be subsidized by Menlo Park taxpayers.
- Stanford carefully calibrated the size of the development to be under the "public benefits" requirements and avoid having to contribute to a pedestrian/bike underpass of the Caltrain tracks for Menlo Park residents.
- Our schools are over-crowded and under-funded. If new families move into this development, it will cause further overcrowding without any new funding to the city.
El Camino Will Cut Menlo Park In Two Forever
- A larger, expanded El Camino will split Menlo Park even further. Those on the West side of El Camino will have more difficulty crossing El Camino to get to the gym, playing fields, library, Menlo Atherton highschool or civic center. And residents on the East side of El Camino will be further prevented from crossing El Camino to go shopping downtown, get to Hillview school or to the Safeway shopping center.
Worsens the Housing Deficit
Menlo Park is required by California Law to build equal parts of housing vs. job-creating offices. Menlo Park's current unbalanced ratio is 1.9 jobs per unity of housing. To reach a jobs-housing balance would be 1.5 jobs per unit of housing. This development, assuming 100 sq feet per employee, will be an unbalanced ratio of 15 jobs per unit of housing. Therefore this development significantly increase the necessity of putting more housing elsewhere in Menlo Park.
Increase in Noise and Air Pollution
The size of the development is massive - it's the equivalent of 4 massive Home Depots side by side. The train noise, which currently dissipates everywhere, will likely bounce back from the massive wall of buildings into the Linfield neighborhood.
The air pollution from the increase in traffic will result in poorer health and quality of life for residents.
What Can Menlo Park Do?
Specific Plans are dynamic documents, and are expected to be changed. A Specific Plan “may be amended as often as deemed necessary by the legislative body.” The OPR’s guide further illuminates this principle of flexibility: “Specific Plans themselves are dynamic documents and may be subject to change. There are no assurances to residents and project proponents that the Plan will not be subject to future revisions.”
What Can You Do?
1. Sign the petition or Sign up for Updates
2. Volunteer to be a block leader and spread the word - hand out flyers and tell your neighbors about this development
3. Write to the Planning Commission: planning.commission@menlopark.org and the City Council city.council@menlopark.org
What is SaveMenlo?
We're a group of people who live here in Menlo Park. Many of us have children who ride or walk to school. Others are long-timers with kids grown up.
We concerned about affect of development, especially traffic on El Camino and cut-through traffic for all the roads that lead to/from El Camino, and the safety of our kids on our streets.
We believe in intelligent development for an environmentally and financially sustainable Menlo Park
What do Menlo Park Residents Want?
Stanford originally represented to City Council that they would use the land to build low-traffic senior housing. We want them to remove the high-traffic medical offices and general offices.
Contact:
SaveMenlo Spokesperson Perla Ni
Resident on Yale Road, Menlo Park
ni.perla@gmail.com
415-902-2659
or
Stefan Petry
Resident on Cambridge, Menlo Park
