Menlo Park City Council voted unanimously to take an important first step toward allowing new affordable homes downtown on city-owned parking lots on Tuesday, in a long meeting with over 100 public comments, split 50/50 between supporters and opponents.
On Tuesday night, Council directed staff to release a Request for Qualifications (RFQ), inviting affordable and private housing developers to propose creative solutions for building affordable homes and replacement parking on Lots 1, 2 and 3 (between Santa Cruz and Oak Grove). For more, read the Almanac’s coverage here.
As next steps City will release the RFQ by the end of January, and developers will have 60 days to respond. Staff will analyze the responses and present them to the City Council at a public meeting in the spring.
Community organizing and turnout in support of housing.
Menlo Together and allies had been organizing to support the affordable housing downtown, to provide homes for people of all ages and incomes, enabling more people to live near where they work, in an area with services and public transportation.
So far, Council has heard from over 570 supporters, including:
- 50 people who made powerful supportive public comments during the meeting.
- More than 185 who emailed City Council members
- Over 400 who signed the most recent HLC/Menlo Together and Peninsula for Everyone petitions
You can still sign the petition if you haven’t already – the number of people taking action sends a powerful signal of community support.
 |
You can read more coverage of the decision here:
- Construcción de viviendas asequibles genera controversia en Menlo Park – Telemundo
- Menlo Park council gives go-ahead to seek developer input on downtown parking lots – The Almanac
- Residents organize to support council’s plan for affordable housing downtown – The Almanac
- Council Proceeds with Downtown Affordable Housing Plan – M-A Chronicle
Delivering on the city’s housing plan
The affordable housing on the downtown parking lots were a key part of the city’s state-required Housing Element plan that was approved in 2024. Housing on leased publicly-owned land is an important strategy to make more deeply affordable housing financially feasible, since a nonprofit affordable housing developer would not need to purchase the land.
The city needs to keep up with its Housing Element commitments in order to retain influence on housing and land use. If the city falls behind in producing housing, projects are streamlined with fewer meetings. If the city falls out of compliance with its Housing Element commitment, city land becomes eligible for Builders Remedy projects where developers don’t need to follow the city’s zoning rules.
This blog post has more answers to frequently asked questions about the downtown affordable housing plan and process.
We will keep you posted on more opportunities to learn about housing, about strategies to manage parking and improve access to downtown, and more actions to take.