The City’s plan for housing on the parking lots would devastate our downtown.
We have 4 lines of defense:
1. The City Council – We hope City Council will finally put a stop to this plan. Council wanted to know if developers would provide sufficient parking. And now they know. None of the submissions come close to providing enough parking for both the residents and businesses. So it's time to see where Council's loyalties lie.
WHAT TO DO: If you haven’t yet, use the City's form to provide feedback on the RFQ submissions. And attend the Council meeting to review the submissions. To be notified when the meeting is, sign up here.
2. The Lawsuit –There are many levels on which the plan has questionable legality. Thanks to so many of you contributing funds, we have been able to file a lawsuit. If it comes down to a court decision, we believe we are in the right.
WHAT TO DO: Contribute to our Legal Defense Fund (it’s for attorney’s fees, not campaigning).
3. A Referendum – If Council declares the parking lots to be surplus land, we can do a referendum so that their action must be rescinded or put to public vote.
WHAT TO DO: Learn about referendums. Tell Council you’d sign a referendum petition if they go through with this plan.
4. A Ballot Initiative – With a ballot initiative, we can create an ordinance requiring Menlo Park voter approval before any repurposing of the downtown parking plazas. It wouldn’t go into effect until approved the next election, but it could apply retroactively and would protect the parking lots into the future.
WHAT TO DO: Let us know what you think about the idea of a ballot initiative, or if you'd like to help collect signatures, by emailing savedowntownmenlo@gmail.com
To protect the parking lots upon which we depend, we need to take all avenues available to us. We have no choice. Our downtown is at stake.
Thank you,
Save Downtown Menlo
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(Note: The "Take the next step!" button below is for Change.org, not us. Our next steps are at SaveDowntownMenlo.org)