Fire district requesting Marsh Road be widened
Council has asked for environmental assessment report
MENLO PARK — The Menlo Park Fire Protection District is trying to convince Atherton to widen Marsh Road from two lanes to three between Fair Oaks Avenue and Middlefield Road.
Along that stretch, Marsh Road is bordered on one side by a concretelined, fenced- off drainage ditch and on the other side by very close property lines, trees and structures. Those two lanes are a key route into and out of town and get congested during peak commute hours, slowing emergency vehicles.
City Manager George Rodericks said the issue was casually discussed for the first time during a recent joint meeting of the fire board and the City Council.
The council wants to improve drainage channels in town, Rodericks said, noting that in previous discussions the possibility of covering the Marsh Road channel so pedestrians and bicyclists can use it was raised.
The council has asked staff for an assessment of costs, environmental impacts and state issues that would be involved but isn’t interested in widening the channel at this moment, “although that could be the eventual outcome,” Rodericks said.
“What we’ve planned is not structurally strong enough to be a roadway,” he added. “It would need more infrastructure to make it a roadway.”
Another issue, Rodericks pointed out, is that a drainage channel involves “critters and vegetation,” so any project intended to change or cover the channel will require permits from the state Department of Fish and Game.
Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman said in an interview Monday that “obviously the district would like that to be covered, just because any kind of narrow roadway is problematic for us when we’re trying to get through traffic. ...
“The big picture is we have large pieces of fire equipment we need to get around, so anything to improve that kind of response are things we are sharing with the jurisdictions that we protect.
“In this particular case, I know that I’ve heard city officials say they want to use that for a bicycle path and other things ... but we’re pretty serious that response time needs to be factored relatively high in the priority list, so we can get around the community, which has become increasingly challenging and problematic.”