The "evidence" for excitement! cited here are either 1.) a restaurant or 2.) use of an existing community space. A reasonable theory for the restaurant support is lunch business for those who now or will work in Menlo Park and or an increase in use by many non-residents. Re-use of existing community spaces, seems uninteresting in the face of the detailed sections listing and describing "growth" as written in the Specific Plan.

Downtown retail uses and retail spaces have been decreasing for a very long time, as they were at the time of adopting the plan.

Local-serving retail establishments of all kinds have generally been crowded out for more than 25 years. This includes theaters, hardware stores, clothing stores, and other non-restaurant, non-bank retail uses.

Prior to 25 years ago, non retail (small office) uses fully encroached on Oak Grove and Menlo.

In looking at the general use designations for Specific Plan locations, (figure E1 ppE3-4) it would be interesting to see how faithfully they have been built out by area, including whether net retail (or even ground floor retail) was built in regions so earmarked and whether net housing was built out in regions so earmarked.

It would be decisive to prove it through the hard zoning numbers but honest people can readily see that retail, housing, and public infrastructure build outs have fallen way, way short of what was imagined and called for in the plan.

How much net new retail space was generated as a result of build-out associated with the plan, how much net housing was built out under the plan, and, of the infrastructure benefits listed in the SP, how much actually got built. Promenades, parks, landscaping, bike underpass, pedestrian crossing, etc. (Description in section D. Funding summaries in Table G2, pG19)

In retrospect, clearly offices of all kinds, regional and local, have dominated build-out of a Specific plan that imagined housing and local serving retail.

Count me among the non-excited.

PH: Your comments are "spot on". For many reasons, no City Council has "owned" the Menlo Park Specific Plan since it was approved in 2013 - after EXTENSIVE resident input and feedback. As I have noted many times before, the Specific Plan did establish clear regulations for commercial development, especially on El Camino, but it has not led to notable progress on civic infrastructure projects. Unfortunately, that is how our city works. Its focus is EXCLUSIVELY on operations not on strategic investments.

Our business community and residents are the ones who can make significant improvements to downtown Menlo Park, and I am impressed by what a few continue to do.

FYI. The Specific Plan did propose public spaces downtown and the temporary community plaza is a good example. Granted, this was not a strategic city investment but triggered by the pandemic. Either way, it has become a valuable community asset.
Now the city needs to make it a PERMANENT place for activities and events. Otherwise, our community will experience another significant setback.

The Santa Cruz avenue street closure needs to be made permanent and expanded to completely close the street to car traffic. The new street restaurant expansions are delightful. Imagine if the street was completely closed to traffic and European style cafes opened in the former median. Pedestrians would take over the street and we would have a truly lively community space.