Menlo Park Measure P isn’t about Housing, it’s about Local Control
The State of California is coming after your parking plazas. Like Menlo Park, most Peninsula cities have parking plazas behind your main street merchants – Laurel St in San Carlos, Santa Cruz Ave in Los Gatos, Main St in Los Altos, Castro St in Mountain View, California Ave in Palo Alto, Burlingame Ave in Burlingame. Sacramento wants Menlo Park to build 600 housing units on the parking plazas that enable mid-Peninsula customers to shop at our downtown merchants and restaurants.
Don’t be misled by signs saying Menlo Park isn’t building enough housing. Another 2,417 apartments are going through the city’s approval process will increase our housing stock by 20% - 7,200 new residents based on three per unit average.
Project Total Housing Proposed Affordable Units
SRI/Parkline. 1,082 293
USGS/Presidio Bay 670 118
Sunset/30-story towers 665 100
Bohannon Office Park. 25 Acres ?
Total New Units 2,417 511
We’ve done our part to build housing in Menlo Park. In fact, about 1,500 apartments have been built, a 15% increase in our housing stock, since the 2015-23 Housing Element that I co-chaired as Mayor.
Meta has laid off thousands of employees, and a half million have moved from California. Yet the politicians in Sacramento continue to force unrealistic regional housing needs allocations to the cities with no state funding for the infrastructure and classrooms needed – an unfunded state mandate, requiring the cities to pick up the tab.
So before we give up our downtown parking plazas, Menlo Park residents want a say – vote Yes on P to give residents a voice in the future of our downtown. Don’t let Sacramento take away local control!
Vote for the Save Downtown Menlo initiative!
Oct. 4, 2025 Menlo Park’s City Council is pushing affordable housing developers to build 6+ story high-density apartments on three heavily-used, downtown parking lots despite widespread opposition from residents and businesses.
Save Downtown Menlo, a grassroots coalition of residents and business owners, is fighting back with a ballot measure that would require voter approval before any downtown parking lots can be repurposed.
If you are a Menlo Park voter, in November vote for the initiative!
Housing projects are going forward with over 1,500 units, which will strain Menlo Park’s infrastructure including our schools - SRI Parkline, USGS, and the Sunset Magazine two 30-story towers.
Don’t sacrifice our downtown
Let’s build on the Alternate Sites BEFORE irrevocably changing our charming Menlo Park downtown.
Once the parking lots are gone, our welcoming downtown character will be GONE.
Stand up for local control and common sense.
If we lose Downtown Menlo Park, what comes next? Your Peninsula city may be next for your downtown parking lots!
✅ Donate here to support the campaign
✅ Volunteer to help spread the word by emailing savedowntownmenlo@gmail.com
