Menlo Park: Specific plan review focuses on public benefits
This is an expanded version of a story previously published
online.  On the second day of reviewing the downtown/El Camino
Real specific plan, the Menlo Park Planning Commission indicated
a desire to take a closer look at how to ensure developments
proposed under the new regulations will contribute to funding
infrastructure improvements to benefit the entire community.
With a 7-0 straw vote on a motion made by Commissioner Katie
Ferrick on Sept. 23, the panel signaled that it wants to move in
the direction of recommending that the City Council investigate
whether a formula that would produce a fee proportional to the
size of the development, as opposed to a flat fee, would prove
more effective in funding infrastructure prioritized within the
specific plan, including pedestrian under-crossings and parking
garages.  Commissioner Vince Bressler pushed for setting a
formula as well as lowering the threshold at which developers
would have to provide pub