by Peter Gauvin
If Palo Alto approves a version of the Sand Hill Road projects, Menlo Park City Council members want the apartment housing relocated away from the creek, the Stanford Shopping Center expansion reduced by half, and Sand Hill Road extended to El Camino Real but not widened to four lanes.
And, the council members made clear to their Palo Alto counterparts last Thursday on Stanford's proposed $342 million development, Menlo Park has absolutely no interest in getting a slice of the estimated $1.2 million in sales tax revenue it would bring to Palo Alto's coffers.
The idea was first raised by former Menlo Park Council member Dee Tolles last summer but was never seriously discussed, Councilman Bob Burmeister said. "Dollars aren't the issue," he told the Palo Alto City Council at the long-awaited joint meeting on Stanford's Sand Hill Road plans.
"We shouldn't try to fabricate or manufacture benefits, but to reduce the impacts of the development," said newly elected Menlo Park Council member Paul Collacchi.
To that end, Menlo Park council members said, preferably, all the projects should be reduced by half and the proposed 628-unit Stanford West apartment complex should be moved from the 48-acre open space along San Francisquito Creek.
The discussion on Thursday was cordial but pretty much one-sided, with Menlo Park council members doing most of the talking. But that was to be expected given that Palo Alto City Council members have yet to formally review the Sand Hill plans.
Menlo Park council members expressed enthusiasm for three potential changes that the Palo Alto Planning Commission asked be studied further in the final environmental impact report (due out Jan. 10): moving the apartments south to the area surrounding Hoover Pavilion; limiting the shopping center expansion to 80,000 square feet; and keeping Sand Hill two lanes.
Two policies in Menlo Park's 1994 General Plan require the council to oppose any development proposals along Sand Hill unless the benefits outweigh the impacts to Menlo Park.
"I found few if any benefits that outweigh the impacts to Menlo Park," said Menlo Park Council member Chuck Kinney, who was propelled into office with Collacchi in November on an anti-Sand Hill platform.
"Menlo Park neighborhoods will bear the brunt of the impacts," whereas most of Palo Alto is buffered from the projects by the university, El Camino and downtown, said colleague Bob Burmeister.
Palo Alto Council member Jean McCown said the projects are an "extraordinary opportunity for our community to add 628 rental housing units. Is that considered a benefit to Menlo Park?" Because the housing is targeted for Stanford employees, Burmeister said it will open up significantly more housing for Menlo Park residents.
Steve Schmidt, Menlo Park's newly elected mayor, opened the meeting by comparing the Sand Hill debate to the long battle to save Mono Lake. As a result of "cooperative problem solving" the lake is now rising and Los Angeles's water needs are being met, he said. "We are here tonight to find some common interests in the Sand Hill corridor project proposed by the Stanford Management Company."
Kinney framed the issue as one of Stanford's property rights versus the community good. He said he understands the broad support to extend Sand Hill so that it no longer ends in a parking lot.
"It's a Catch-22 for Palo Alto," Kinney said. The additional housing is desired, but a widened road will be a "harbinger" of future development.
Schmidt said the projects place much more emphasis on accommodating autos than bicyclists, pedestrians and alternative transit.
Collacchi said he's concerned about the cumulative traffic impacts of the projects, the new Palo Alto Medical Foundation campus to be built on El Camino and Stanford's future development plans for areas such as the vacant land across Sand Hill from the Oak Creek Apartments.
"I see the widened road as a real Pandora's Box," Collacchi said.
Although the Stanford West site has been zoned for high-density housing for decades, it will not ease the loss of open space next to "one of the last natural creeks in our counties," Kinney said. The apartment and senior housing projects "treat the creek like a back door," he added, by placing service road and loading docks in the back.
Later during the study session, Palo Alto council members asked questions of their Menlo Park colleagues but did not comment on the projects. About 50 public speakers had a minute each to air their views, but their comments will not go on the official record.
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