Resident Lynne Bramlett pointed to grocery store proposals in Palo Alto that have lost momentum over the years. However, some residents shared similar fears to the council regarding the staying power of a grocery store. it's always felt like a pretty big oversight, as someone who's invested and raising a family here in the neighborhood." "It's not that we're a food desert per se, but having to move to drive to East Palo Alto or kind of deal with Willow (Road) and get into west Menlo Park. "The grocery store is just an absolute must for us," Pataki said. One Menlo Park resident, Nicholas Pataki, said he wanted a more easily accessible grocery store for him and his family. Ten residents who spoke at the meeting heavily supported the grocery store. "We do too, but we don't know that it will be there long term." "We believe that (Meta) expects that an operating grocery store will come in," Nash said. The grocery store space is valued by Meta and the city at over $30 million, while the rent subsidy is valued at around $2 million. While the rent of the space would be subsidized for two years, there is no promise that a tenant will move in and stay in operation. However, Nash noted that the grocery store was not a full-service grocery store as advertised, but rather a pre-built grocery store space. One of those amenities is a grocery store, something the Belle Haven neighborhood has long requested. Meta is required to provide $133.3 million in community amenities, according to Menlo Park's ConnectMenlo initiative, but the amenities offered by Meta are valued at over $267 million according to the city and over $295 million according to Meta. Over 15% of residential units are to be offered at below market rate to satisfy both the city's inclusionary housing policy and commercial development requirements, according to Meta's application. While there has been some scrutiny of the plans to build over the site of a buried Native American village, the project is moving through the planning process with proposals for community amenities for Belle Haven.Īlong with the offices, the project would include 1,730 residential units and a 193-room hotel. The main development would be built along Willow Road between Hamilton Avenue and Ivy Drive across 59 acres, according to the application. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has plans to build an ambitious development that includes 1.6 million square feet of offices, a 4.6-acre retail campus, a town square and publicly accessible park in the Belle Haven neighborhood. But the Menlo Park City Council questioned if the proposal is the best way to spend the money at its May 24 meeting, with council member Betsy Nash taking a skeptical view of the benefits. Meta is offering a more than quarter-billion dollar package of community benefits for its massive Willow Village development.
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