Deanna
I am mailing you to record my reaction to the proposed Stanford Hotel at
the Sandhill Rd/I280 junction.
 
My family and I live at 1135 Monte Rosa Drive and are therefore will be
affected by the development if it goes ahead. I am very concerned about
the following
 

1. Today Monte Rosa Drive is used as a "rat-run" from the Alameda
de las Pulgas. The volume and speed of the traffic is already an issue
of great concern and local residents are pressing for a traffic impact
study. My children need to cross the road to pick up the School Bus or
go to Sharon Park. I am getting increasingly worried about their safety.
Adding offices, leisure facilities and a hotel as proposed will result
in a greatly increased number of journeys at peak hours. Hotel
and leisure facilities will increase traffic at weekends and late into
the evenings. Conferences and seminars will add additional "bursts" of
journeys at almost any time.

I fear the Hotel complex will be "tipping point" and Monte Rosa will
become a heavily used throughway with the consequent negativeimpact on
all aspects of our life: safety, noise, pollution and overall quality of
life.

The report says "Although implementation of the mitigation measure would
help, it would not reduce the impact to a less than significant level."
It seems that you agree - a deteriorating situation will get much worse.
 

2. I use Sandhill Road and I280 to travel to and from work. This
development will significantly impact my commute.

3. Building a large scale facility on the edge of an urban area
will encourage urban sprawl along Sandhill road.. It will begin to make
the case for developments across the other side of I280. I280 boasts
that it is ""The World's Most Beautiful Freeway." Shame on Menlo Park
for chipping away at that image.

 
In fact the Hotel holds no significant advantage to the residents of the
City. There will no new municipal facilities, no new parks or libraries.
The sole benefit to the City is a financial one. It is neither fair, nor
reasonable, to ask the residents of Sharon Heights to bear the burden of
solving a financial problem that should be shared across the City. If
there is a financial problem, then I believe we should look at raising
the money in other ways including increasing taxes.
 
Yours sincerely
Derek Coleman.
Received on Fri Feb 24 17:12:44 2006