Following the third phase of the presentation of the development for El Camino Real, the Menlo Park’s city council has approved an office development plan to be situated in an area formerly housing the Cadillac dealership. It is a “110,000-square-foot, 40-foot-high retail and office development on 3.5 acres” at El Camino, according to Almanac news.
The catch is, the council did not approve the inclusion of housing units. However, they “left the door open” for the eventual inclusion of housing units in the revised plan for which is expected to be released soon.
Apparently, reactions have been building up since the downtown planning process commenced. This was recently expressed through websites and during the workshops, but now we have an intriguing challenge at hand – a letter from a group called “Concerned Citizens of Menlo Park” which found its way to the City Hall, as if on cue, before the council meeting started.
The letter detailed concerns such as “ozone damage, greenhouse emissions, traffic concerns, and land use issues,” according to reports. The good thing is that citizens are continuously expressing their take on the matter, but the way this particular attempt at expression was done poses questions and creates an awkward situation. While the community workshops are ongoing, one may ask why a group of people would opt to send an essentially anonymous letter (hundreds of pages long) to air their concerns. This casts a shadow on the workshops which rely on open communication. If face to face communication cannot be successfully carried out through such venues, we could only wonder what this group’s next attempt at communication might be, and through what medium might it be delivered.
The city council is now facing pressure both from the citizens and the developer, who some think will not modify the plan to include housing. An area which could have been dedicated for multi-family housing is now going to be utilized for commercial purposes. Perhaps the council envisions a more vigorous economy pad where the housing project would be launched, but as of now, City Manager Glen Rojas has stated there are no current requirements for housing included in the project.
With any process of change, especially in cases such as these which involves massive transformations, there will always be resistance. The challenge now is maintaining transparency and fostering trust among the participants of change so that all parties may move in one direction. Through transparency, good communication is facilitated which tends to prevent the most recent attempt by a group to communicate via mystery or sensationalism.
The focus now should be only El Camino Real and the development plan being proposed, not special interest groups claiming issues with ozone depletion and greenhouse gasses. We can’t let groups like this steal the spotlight from the project and cloud the issues. Community-based workshops should continue maintaining a healthy exchange of opinion and insights and continue to serve their roll as data gathering venues. There may be lots of doubts and accusations right now about the recent developments, but the benefits of having a good housing project plan underway should be not be forgotten or compromised.
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