Menlo Balance initiative fears not based on reality
Ravenswood City School District is in the early planning stages of a project to build 90 below-market-rate housing units at the vacant Flood School site in Menlo Park.
Organizers of the Menlo Balance petition claim that their purpose is to stop residential neighborhoods from being changed to commercial or industrial.
However, the one known project that this initiative could block is this proposed affordable housing development at Flood School. (Despite the site having only ever served as a school, it is zoned single family residential.)
No residential parcel in Menlo Park has ever been developed into a “manufacturing plant” or “big-box store,” and this will never happen due to Menlo Park’s need for housing. It also would violate California “No Net Loss” law that discourages converting any housing to non-residential usage.
See www.floodschoolhousing.org for information. Also see the May 5 Almanac article which sheds light on the origins of the initiative.
Katie Behroozi contributed to this post.
Illustration shows location of Flood School
Buck Bard May 23, 2022 at 9:58 am
>>>No residential parcel in Menlo Park has ever been developed into a “manufacturing plant” or “big-box store,” and this will never happen due to Menlo Park’s need for housing.
And what authority do you have for claiming “will never happen.” Just because you don’t like that the provision as written allows for it doesn’t mean it will never happen. If that “will never happen” then why was it not written into the housing plan as such? You just can’t make that claim.
>>>It also would violate California “No Net Loss” law that discourages converting any housing to non-residential usage.
Again, hyperbole and misleading. It discourages it, but it in no way precludes that use. And “Net” means it could simply be made up elsewhere.
You’re guilty of the very same propaganda you claim Menlo Balance has.