Menlo Park: Facebook expansion clears Planning Commission

Am wondering if there will be means to mitigate impacts on close communities such as Palo Alto for increased air and other traffic? Whereas FB makes considerable efforts to do good in the world there are nevertheless serious effects that decrease the overall quality of life through overcrowding and infrastructure wear. It is not just about housing but the more invisible effects as well such as air pollution, noise and resultant health effects.

Please Mark will you mindfully reflect and increase your awareness upon these as well? Perhaps consider having your major operations out of cities that need you there? Given your highest capacities to operate through Internet from long distances away maybe use the space here in the conditions upon which you found it? Peaceful, and with less stressful living conditions? Your work is important and you can use your expertise without local intrusion. This goes for other large tech companies as well

On balance, given the quality of the building, the package of public benefits they provided and - most importantly - Facebook's intent to add housing to balance out the jobs created here, I think this is a good call.

However, we can't stop here, adding just the workers and not the housing to balance it. It's important that the Planning Commission and the City Council allow Facebook to build the housing that they have requested to build. And, as part of that, they should require Facebook to make 15% of that housing affordable to people who live in the Belle Haven neighborhood. That will create enough housing for 20% of the population of Belle Haven, as well the Facebook workers who will work nearby.

There are no other options to creating this amount of affordable housing anywhere else in the county, much less the city of Menlo Park. We have a great opportunity here - let's not mess it up.