A Housing Element Amendment for Menlo Park
Why: 1) get real homes built; and 2) keep the Housing Element certified (something Menlo Park has lost before).
This is a citizen-drafted proposal. It is not a City of Menlo Park document.
Overview
- Menlo Park’s certified Housing Element made two big bets: the downtown parking plazas and Meta’s Willow Village. Both of those projects have stalled.
- This amendment accounts for all 345 deeply affordable homes previously allocated to the parking plazas, and places them within emerging projects at Parkline (SRI Campus) and the former USGS campus. The net result is more affordable homes, sooner, and more cost-effectively for Menlo Park.
- The amended element clears every state requirement, with room to spare, even if Meta never builds.
Why the element needs amending
- The certified Housing Element counted the eight downtown parking lots for 345 deeply affordable homes, on the idea that free city land would make the economics work.
- Last December, real developers sent in real bids, and the bids told us: the land is free, but the parking isn’t. The city’s request cannot be met. Replacing the 556 public parking spaces our downtown relies on means a $33 to $63 million garage, roughly what the land is worth, and budget that no one has. One bid offered zero deeply affordable homes and still counted on $25 million in public money, a figure now confirmed as a line item in the City’s own financial review.
- In spring 2026, Meta put Willow Village on hold: 1,730 homes and nearly 1/5th of the city’s affordable plan.
The amendment: more affordable homes, sooner, in better places
- Stop betting Menlo Park’s Housing Element on the parking lots. The lots stay public, parking stays, nothing gets banned; the city just stops needing those lots built ASAP to stay legal with the state.
- Deepen affordability: Put the 345 very-low-income homes where construction is already happening. Parkline and the old USGS campus can replace every one, with a path to all 345 at the deepest affordability level. No expensive, commercially critical garage to build first. The cost model is public at lauramelahn.com.
- Say yes to the landowner who’s been asking to build. The David D. Bohannon Organization asked the City, in writing, to build a real housing neighborhood near Marsh Road. City staff recommended saying yes; the council declined. The amendment incorporates the site as bonus capacity toward the state requirements, and the amended element stays compliant even if it never happens.
- Don’t depend on any one project. The amended element works with Willow Village removed entirely, in case it never comes back.
- Let Belle Haven shape the city lot at Willow and Ivy. The empty city lot at 1283 Willow Road gets committed to housing, with Belle Haven residents deciding design and mix.
Does it add up?
| Homes for | State requires | The amended plan provides | If Meta never builds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower-income families (“very low” + “low”) | 1,166 | about 1,990 | about 1,795 |
| Middle-income families (“moderate”) | 496 | about 779 | about 662 |
| Everyone else (“above moderate”) | 1,284 | about 4,144 | about 2,726 |
- The amended element runs the worst case: if Meta never builds and Bohannon never happens, we stay compliant.
- Amending a certified Housing Element is normal and legal: post the draft, give the state 60 days, answer comments, adopt. State law expects cities to fix plans when facts change.
- Every project still gets public hearings and environmental review.
We would change the plan that does not pencil so Menlo Park can keep its housing promise.