Right on "Downtown Alliance"! How do we contribute?

Does anyone else want to see the El Camino and Station Area East aspects of this plan move forward without further delay? If we need to spend more time thinking about Downtown, does El Camino, its blighted sites, and its outdated zoning need to be held hostage? Can we quickly bifurcate the Downtown and El Camino plan components so we can make some progress on the ECR now? There are good developers along the ECR ready and waiting for some certainty from the City, and finally the market is improving such that we might actually get some great projects to go in upon the adoption of this Specific Plan.

Is this process inefficiency bothering anyone else?

The silver lining is that the draft EIR can be amended now to include the deficiencies, if warranted, rather than having to fight it out in court after it is approved. There is an advantage to hearing from the "enemy" where their land minds are buried

Bifurcate El Camino? Certainly but not to the massive scale as proposed

I would like to know what the downtown alliance feels would revitalize our deteriorating downtown shopping area. They seem to be against every improvement idea that comes along.
Ok, I challenge you to come up with a plan!

Shawn, the Downtown Alliance has put forth a compromise plan. They gave it to the City prior the EIR's creation. The City then chose not to include the Downtown's Alliance's compromise plan as an alternative plan considered in the EIR.

Looks like that was a big mistake.

A histrionic letter from Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, alleging fatal flaws and a need for re-circulation... where have I heard that before.... Oh yea, when Paul Collacchi paid them to write a spite letter on the Bohannon project (see "Zinn" - Web Link That resulted in a lot more paper, but no re-circulation and no denial of the project (64.5% voter approval, even). If anything, that hurt Paul and his Preferred Citizens Club by putting them so clearly in an antagonistic role. On this one, the Council might as well cut off negotiations with Couperus and Flegel now, since they're obviously not interested in collaborative solutions. Work with the Chamber of Commerce- they're stuck in the 1990s, but at least that's better than the 'Downtown Alliance' being stuck in the 1950s.

a number of projects have been built or approved for vacant lots n El Camino Real under the existing zoning (the Cadillac site, Beltramo project among others). Stanford is getting paid for leases on their large chunk of land from Big 5 to the county line, for about three more years. They say they will bring a project forward then.
So .... how is it that the zoning is the problem? Approved projects aren't being built, and Stanford is in no hurry to do anything.

How about sticking with facts? Most of us would appreciate more civil and positive discourse, too. Labeling and attacking others in our community makes this an uglier place.

Dear what zoning restrictions,

Approved projects in this City require many years to get those approvals, often causing them to miss the market cycle for which they were designed and intended. Specific plans streamline the process so that great projects can get proposed, reviewed, approved, financed, built, and tenanted during the same market cycle. Look at Derry, whose for-sale condo project (regardless that property's ownership issues) has not been "finance-able" by any kind of construction lender for about 3 years now. Look at 1300 ECR, whose stacked office/retail mixed-use project has not been "finance-able" by any kind of construction lender for about the same amount of time.

Bottom line is, whatever the Specific Plan utlimately allows developers to do, it will be great for business in Menlo Park.

well proponent, I don't quite buy that argument. Some of these projects did not take very long at all to get approved, but still aren't built so clearly there other factors than zoning at play. Zoning is not the issue.
If developers have free reign to build many multiples of what is possible now, that might be good for them, but the resulting congestion may well kill all that's good about Menlo Park. Some development would be great, especially if it helps the housing shortage but I understand the project brings hideous traffic and worsens green house gases by a lot. So what does that do to us residents? Can't we do better than this?

Thanks for the dialogue. I agree that there are surely other factors out there - namely the market, which I considered in my thinking. I am not sure which projects you think sped through the approval process - I am certainly interested to hear that from you since my experience is that it takes years to approve anything even if it CONFORMS with existing zoning rules, not to mention departs from them.

As far as the two projects I mentioned, the City's dedicated webpages for these projects (below) show that the Derry approval process (PRE-referendum) took almost 3 years to grant entitlements (Jan '04 to Aug '06) and the Cadillac site (1300 ECR) took almost 4 years (Dec '05 to Oct '09). The interesting note here is that 1300 ECR changed its application in Jul '07 to conform with the existing zoning so that a General Plan amendment would not be required (the developer having seen what happened to Derry even after it got its approvals). So even applications that meet existing zoning standards (not to mention those that propose to clean up a huge chunk of blight on El Camino) take over 2 years to get through Menlo Park's approval process.

I am not taking a position on whether or not the development standards in the proposed Specific Plan (or the concerns or approach of the Downtown Alliance) are appropriate. I am only saying that this City's process for reviewing development applications is generally severely flawed, too drawn-out and insecure and as a result often counter-productive. Again, I welcome examples from you of those projects that "did not take very long to get approved", but in their absence (and Council's commitment to speedy review going forward) I see the adoption of a specific plan -- with its clear, comprehensive ground rules and efficient processes -- as hugely important for the City in its effort to rid El Camino of its many giant eyesores and ensure good development in general.

Web Link

Web Link

Sorry, Proponent, but it is often the applicant who takes the time, not necessarily the approval process. Besides, far more often any delays are during the building permit process, which has been described as needing improvement, not during the use permit process. The new zoning will do absolutely nothing to speed up the building permit process. If you are familiar at all with construction, you already know this. Be honest.