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Briefs: Arrillaga protest gathers signatures

Save Menlo, a group of community members not thrilled with the massive eight-acre, mixed-use complex developer John Arrillaga wants to build on Stanford's car lots in Menlo Park, has been busy.

The group has gathered 156 signatures towards its goal of 500 for a petition expressing concern about the traffic impact of the proposed 96,000 square feet of medical offices, 133,350 square feet of regular offices, plus retail space and 120 apartments. Save Menlo estimates that the project will consume 51 percent of the maximum non-residential buildout allowed by the new downtown/El Camino Real specific plan.

Save Menlo also maintains that the specific plan's environmental impact report did not analyze the effect of that much medical office space being added along El Camino Real.

Options for forcing changes to the development remain virtually non-existent, however, since the project meets the baseline requirements of the specific plan and thus requires no overall Planning Commission or City Council approval.

New health center

A pledge of $4.3 million from the Sequoia Healthcare District helped San Mateo County start construction of a new health center at 2710 Middlefield Road in Redwood City. The project, a combined medical-dental clinic, broke ground Dec. 14, and the county expects construction to be finished within a year.