You are here: Home / Government/ Departments / Community Development / Planning Division / Comprehensive planning / Affordable housing on downtown parking lots

Affordable housing on downtown parking lots

The City of Menlo Park is exploring the development of affordable housing on City-owned downtown parking lots. This initiative stems from the City's 2023-2031 Housing Element, which initially identified eight downtown parking lots as potential sites to help meet Menlo Park's regional housing needs allocation. Specifically, Housing Element program H4.G outlines a plan to develop at least 345 affordable housing units on a combination of downtown parking lot sites. At this time, the City is evaluating Parking Plazas 1, 2, and 3 (the three lots north of Santa Cruz Avenue) for affordable housing. The program aims to integrate affordable housing options in high-resource areas of the community while adhering to procedures consistent with the Surplus Land Act.

City Council Meeting

Date: Jan. 14, 2025
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: City Council Chambers
751 Laurel St., Menlo Park, CA 94025

Attend to provide public comment and/or listen as the City Council continues its review from Nov. 19, 2024 and potentially takes action on a declaration of Parking Plazas 1, 2, and 3 as exempt surplus land and a draft Request for Qualifications to solicit interest from affordable housing developers.

Current Status

On Nov. 19, 2024, the City Council began its review of a resolution declaring the three selected City-owned parking lots as exempt surplus land and a draft request for qualifications (RFQ) to solicit interest and qualifications from affordable housing developers. During public comment on the Council item, over 40 members of the public provided feedback. The City Council directed staff to perform additional community outreach and continued discussion of the item to Jan. 14, 2025.

Stay Informed

Subscribe below to receive updates regarding this project via email.

Timeline

Select events in the project history are listed below, beginning with the most recent event:

On Nov. 19, 2024, the City Council reviewed the draft resolution declaring Parking Plazas 1, 2, and 3 as exempt surplus land and the draft request for qualifications (RFQ). The City Council directed staff to perform additional community outreach and continued the item to Jan. 14, 2025.

Nov. 19, 2024 - Meeting agenda and materials(PDF, 21MB)
Nov. 19, 2024 - Presentation(PDF, 7MB)
Nov. 19, 2024 - Video

On Nov. 14, 2024, the City hosted an informational meeting for downtown business and property owners to provide an overview of the project and receive feedback. Over 40 attendees participated.

Nov. 14, 2024 - Presentation(PDF, 548KB)
Nov. 14, 2024 - Presentation boards (Plaza 1(PDF, 3MB) , Plaza 2(PDF, 2MB) , & Plaza 3(PDF, 2MB) )

On Aug. 27, 2024, the City Council held a study session and staff received feedback to prepare a request for qualifications (RFQ) document to solicit interest from affordable housing developers for the redevelopment of Parking Plazas 1, 2 and/or 3. The RFQ is anticipated to be released with the goal of identifying qualified developers to construct affordable housing and replacement public parking on one or more of the selected City-owned downtown parking lots.

Aug. 27, 2024 - Meeting agenda and materials
Aug. 27, 2024 - Presentation
Aug. 27, 2024 - Video

The general project timeline outlined in the Housing Element is as follows:

2023 - Conduct feasibility study (Complete)
2024 - Issue request for proposals for affordable housing development
2025 - Complete development entitlements
2027 - Seek to complete development of 345 or more affordable housing units

Frequently asked questions

Based on common themes from correspondence and public comments received at past meetings, staff is developing frequently asked questions (FAQ) that will be posted in the near future.

An FAQ related to the 2023-2031 Housing Element is available on the Housing Element project webpage.

Contact us

Tom Smith
Principal Planner
Email

650-330-6730