To whom it may concern. Attached please find a letter about tonight's meeting. I have also copied it below:

John Danforth

John Danforth

885 Menlo Oaks Drive

Menlo Park, CA 94025

December 18, 2007

Menlo Park City Council
City of Menlo Park
701 Laurel Street
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(via email)

Dear Menlo Parks City Council,

Rich Angelo of the Traffic Commission was wonderful today in returning my phone call and answering my concerns about tonight’s Council meeting. Apparently, there is no plan to approve moving the 101 over- pass to the end of Menlo Oaks Drive. Still, if that idea does arise, I thought the following thoughts would still be of use to the Council – if not tonight then perhaps in the future.

I received a few days ago an informal notice (presumably from a neighbor) alerting me to a Menlo Park City Counsel agenda item for tonight: approval by Menlo Park of the construction of a Highway 101 pedestrian/bike overpass. The notice I was sent suggests (I am told incorrectly) that it will be moved to a location at the end of my street (about a block and a half from my house.)

I am likely to be unable to attend tonight’s meeting on such short notice. But if there is any truth to the notice I was sent, I hope that you will take the time to listen to my views and those of my neighbors and balance them in your decision as to whether or not to endorse movement of the proposed overpass. Can you please schedule a time to meet with (or invite to a City Council meeting) the Menlo Oaks Neighborhood Association (“MODA”)? Contact information for MODA can be found here: http://menlo-oaks.org/contact.html

I do not yet know much about this issue --- other than the staff report online and the notice I received. So I have no real sense if the overpass is or is not important in any location. But I think moving it to Menlo Oaks (if that does become a proposal) makes no sense. Among the issues that that proposal would involve are:

1. The proposed overpass will redirect students (who I understand currently take about 100 trips per day over the bridge, with apparent hopes that that number will increase) from the much safer, more direct Ringwood Ave. route to Menlo Atherton High School to a much more narrow, windy and indirect route, my street, Menlo Oaks Drive. During school commute hours people tend to speed on Menlo Oaks Drive, so the relative lack of visibility and room on Menlo Oaks Drive is, among other things, a very significant safety issue.
2. The character of my neighborhood will be harmed by any move of the overpass to Menlo Oaks Drive. Ours is a very rural-feeling street – tree-lined, narrow, windy, and with no sidewalks. There are few houses close to the road and few large fences. Other than during school commute hours, Menlo Oaks has relatively little traffic. Residents have in the past very strongly opposed installing sidewalks on Menlo Oaks Drive and, indeed, there really is little or no room for sidewalks. We have also opposed straightening the street, which would require the removal of several large and old trees and will, in this and other ways, drastically alter a unique neighborhood that I believe its residents cherish.
3. If moved to Menlo Oaks, the overpass will then be much closer to the Willow overpass, which I understand is scheduled to be greatly improved in the relative near future for pedestrians and bikes. A Menlo Oaks overpass will be therefore be realitvely inefficient (and will be redundant to some extent), and will certainly less useful than an overpass in the current location.

Many thanks for your consideration of these issues. If, contrary to Mr. Angelo’s indication on the phone today, there is at some point a plan to move the overpass to Menlo Oaks drive, then I hope to hear from you. In that event, I would also hope that sufficient notice to my neighbors will also be provided and that our views will be heard and taken into account.

Very truly yours,

John Danforth Received on Tue Dec 18 16:31:36 2007