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Menlo Park City Council appointed two new planning commissioners on Tuesday as the group’s chair Michael Doran and commissioner Camille Kennedy conclude their terms at the end of this month.
Linh Dan Do, a Rice University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, and David Thomas, the current chair of the city’s parks and recreation commission, will join the Menlo Park Planning Commission on May 1.
The planning commission not only makes recommendations to the City Council on conditional development permits, zoning ordinance amendments and Below Market Rate housing agreements in projects, among other areas, but also can approve developments that require a use permit, architectural control review and an environmental impact report — a state-mandated study of a project.
The planning commission is currently reviewing the draft environmental impact report for the large Willow Village project by Meta (formerly known as Facebook), which will build retail, offices, a park and potentially 1,730 housing units. Recently, the commission approved an eight-story mixed-use building with 158 rental units and about 15,000 square feet of office and commercial space.
During her interview with the City Council on April 19, Dan Do said that she was particularly interested in joining the commission because the city is currently undergoing rapid development, while it also updates its housing plans for 2023-31.
“This is such a critical time for Menlo Park. Many of us came to live here because of its neighborhood, it’s friendly, it’s accessible and it’s walkable, but with that amount of change, it could go well, it could go less well,” she said. “So it seems like a critical time to get involved.”
A District 3 resident, Dan Do moved to Menlo Park in 2018. She wrote in her application that she’s had many conversations with families who say there’s a “prevalent sense of feeling transitory due to the prohibitively high cost of purchasing a home.”
Thomas, a two-year Menlo Park resident and machine learning engineer at a financial tech company, will end his term on the city’s parks and recreation commission, where he currently serves as the chair, on April 30.
In his application, Thomas wrote that the commission is facing many challenges. citing the “significant jump in the housing required by the Regional Housing Needs Allocation,” changes to El Camino Real and the future use of the U.S. Geological Survey campus, as well as an “increasing number of homes” that are being remodeled.
Thomas said during his interview with the City Council that he sees a gap in the commission in its representation of renters and has personally experienced the challenges of finding a place to live in Menlo Park.
“Trying to find a way for my wife and I to live in this area and have a child — it was really difficult, and it kind of made me want to get more involved,” said Thomas, who also ran for housing commission last year.
Dan Do and Thomas will serve four-year terms on the planning commission, which end April 30, 2026.
The City Council also made appointments for five other advisory bodies in Menlo Park: the complete streets, environmental quality, housing, library and parks and recreation commissions. The council did not appoint a member to the finance and audit committee.
Complete Streets Commission:
● Sally Cole, incumbent commissioner and former Menlo Park Heritage Tree Task Force member
● Christopher Kollmann, Menlo Park Fire Protection District instructor
Environmental Quality Commission:
● Tom Kabat, incumbent commissioner and board member of Carbon Free Silicon Valley
● Nancy Larocca Hedley, 18-year Menlo Park resident
● Jeffrey Lin, former Berkeley Sustainability Committee member
● Jeff Schmidt, member of Menlo Park climate team of 350 Silicon Valley
Housing Commission:
● Jackelyn Campos, outreach specialist at Fair Oaks Community Center in Redwood City
● Adriana Walker, member of beechwood School parent advisory board
Library Commission:
● Alan Cohen, incumbent commissioner
● Sarah Zasslow, 29-year Menlo Park resident
Parks and Recreation Commission:
● Kelsey Theriault, former educator at Woodside and Sequoia high schools
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