M-A is in Atherton, not Menlo Park

I went to a coffee two weeks ago with some candidates. I brought in your literature and challenged the candidates. It was really interesting to hear the responses.

Morris claims in his opposition mailers and in recent public forums that there will be 1799 homes forced on us as a result of jobs creation at the site. So I asked the candidates.

Morris is not telling you the entire story.

Did you know that this number is regional and not just MP?

Did you know that Morris knows this and is lying to you to scare you?

I say this because I took it as fact for month. In fact, the city is only a small percentage of this housing load. So the housing load is less than 100 homes.

When I asked one of the candidates who opposes Measure T this question, he told me it was regional homes which still have a negative impact on our community.

Well, this school money is regional too. So if you are going to use a regional number that in my mind is fictitious, you should use the regional school dollars too.

But you don't, Morris.

You use the regional housing number to fool us and you try to act like the regional school dollars is a lie.

Shameful. Your candidate will be getting no votes from me.

It looks to me as if Morris never claimed that all the new housing would be in Menlo Park. Actually, no one knows where the new housing will go but the city's consultants estimated that Menlo Park will have some of it. If not, there will be even more traffic from commuters. The project doesn't provide any housing or land despite generating the need for more. Schools in Menlo Park would lose money from additional students and no revenue from the project.

The destination of the school revenue is quite certain, however. It is based on where property taxes from the project flow. And for schools, it's not to districts in Menlo Park.

Bohannon wants everyone to believe an inflated revenue number for regional schools. The benefit is real but between 1/3 to 1/2 what is claimed, because it is revenue net of new costs and deductions of state funding for Revenue Limit districts.

Indeed:

We never claimed 1800 new homes only in Menlo Park, rather 1800 homes would be need regionally. I certainly am not lying. Our group is not lying. We went to the meetings, we documented what we have posted.

What is interesting is that Henry Riggs, planning commissioner requested that the developer "identify" where 400 homes could be built.

Bohannnon refused to even do this. As a result, Henry told me he has refused to "endorse" the project, although he voted with the 4:3 majority at the Planning Commission meeting to approve the project.