Posted by Peter Carpenter, a resident of the Atherton: Lindenwood neighborhood, on Mar 4, 2013 at 12:18 pm
Peter Carpenter is a member (registered user) of Almanac Online

"the applicant proposes 113 spaces – 74 on site and 39 spaces on Garwood Way currently used by the senior home, but within the public right-of-way."

The city should require that the applicant either lease or purchase this portion of Garwood Way at fair market value as a condition of approving the proposed hotel. It IS public space.

Posted by new revenue, a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on Mar 4, 2013 at 12:22 pm

They are leasing it. The way the staff report reads, the rent is waived as long as they are generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in TOT. if they do not generate a minimum TOT, the city can collect $50,000 in rent or terminate the agreement.

Posted by Peter Carpenter, a resident of the Atherton: Lindenwood neighborhood, on Mar 6, 2013 at 1:30 am
Peter Carpenter is a member (registered user) of Almanac Online

Well it turns out that the Planning Commission voted to give away this public space for 5 years!! "voted 6-2, with Onken dissenting, to recommend that Sand Hill be charged market rate for the Garwood Way parking spaces after five years if it can't arrange to obtain other spaces."

This is both a horrible decision and a horrible precedent.

Why don't all the other businesses in Menlo Park now demand that, in return for the revenue they each create, they be given exclusive rights to a certain number of PUBLIC parking spaces?