In other words, aabout a million bucks have been spent and what do we have to show for it? A "Feel Good" experience?
When is the next "Rejuvenate Downtown Menlo Park" study due. How much has been spent on that over the years? And what do we have to show for it? More empty buildings.

Menlo Park affordable housing. Now there's an oxymoron.

Once again no one can make a decision, didn't they see this coming a long time ago ? The city council needs to give up their money & all compensation every time they mess up, which means they will be working for free ! Please city council, don't cry poor mouth as you
waste so much money, learn how to make a decision, make it sooner than later, then move on..The goal is to conserve money, not give
it away for no good reason after 10 years....Get a grip people !!!

This council let a small group of people thwart the city's long standing policy of creating affordable housing and it did this while throwing money to the winds.

Next, I fear we will watch the council cave into another small group of wealthy downtown property owners and kill off all the most progressive and interesting elements of the downtown plan.

Stop spending money and make the hard decisions. The council needs to represent the residents who will be living in the city for the next 35 years. Don't listen to the cranky, frightened residents who have no stake in the future.

Stay classy, Menlo.

With a very quick scan of old staff reports (for highlights), and yearly council line-up (for reference), we can attempt to shed some light on the (staff) time and money that can be lost when somebody dumps diesel fuel on city-owned property. The city used RDA funds to pay for the clean-up.

2000: Habitat for Humanity purchased property at 297 Terminal:
under Kinney, Collacchi, Schmidt, Borak and Mayor Jellins

2001: Habitat entered agreement to purchase Terminal Property:
under Kinney, Collacchi, Borak, Jellins and Mayor Schmidt

2002: Habitat finds contamination from degraded diesel fuel:
under Duboc, Winkler, Kinney, Collacchi and Mayor Jellins

2003: Phase 2 environmental study due to groundwater contamination:
under Jellins, Winkler, Kinney, Collacchi and Mayor Duboc

2004: Habitat contract amended, county gets involved:
under Fergusson, Cohen, Duboc, Jellins and Mayor Winkler

2005: City send out RFPs for consultants to cleanup site:
under Fergusson, Cohen, Duboc, Winkler and Mayor Jellins

2006: City considers $200K EPA Brownfields Grant for cleanup:
under Robinson, Cline, Boyle, Cohen and Mayor Fergusson

2007: City turns down $200K EPA grant due to complexities:
under Robinson, Cline, Boyle, Fergusson and Mayor Cohen

2008: Cleanup becomes a CEQA issue, proposals go out:
under Fergusson, Cohen, Boyle, Cline and Mayor Robinson

2009: Cleanup finished, Habitat gets push-back from community:
under Fergusson, Cohen, Robinson, Boyle and Mayor Cline

2010: Habitat abandons project, city agrees to purchase 297 Terminal:
under Ohtake, Keith, Fergusson, Cohen and Mayor Cline

"Stay classy Menlo"? How about achieve it first, then try to preserve it! But still better than neighboring Shallow Alto!

Menlo Voter, loved your post.

What I really love about the entire incident is how incredibly happy some people are and how others are angry.
This is the really makes me wonder if any people here have any idea of what being a human being is.
Also, that "social status" amounts to a hill of beings as of three years ago.
Corsages are for Halloween.
Golf clubs are for Charles Coburn wannabees.