Mixed-use project next to Menlo Park train station gets green light
MENLO PARK » A new development of shops, housing and restaurants next to the Menlo Park Caltrain station that will better serve train riders and downtown shoppers has received the green light.
It’s the first development along the city’s main drag to accomplish the goal envisioned when the city relaxed downtown zoning rules in 2012 to allow for taller buildings and residences on top of offices.
Rapp Development is merging three parcels at 506 and 556 Santa Cruz Ave. and 1125 Merrill St. to construct three four-story mixed-use buildings that will contain retail/restaurant spaces on the ground floor, 22,000 square feet of offices on the second and third floors and nine housing units on the third and fourth floors. The project was approved by the Planning Commission last May, but Rapp submitted a revised application with minor structural changes to 1125 Merrill in October that were approved by city staff on Monday .
“We’re currently reviewing a building permit for 1125 Merrill Street and the permit will be issued once the applicant addresses all our comments,” Senior planner Corinna Sandmeier said by email Wednesday. “The changes … were mainly windowtype changes.”
The new building at 1125 Merrill will be 53 feet high, making it the tallest building along Santa Cruz. It will be roughly the same height as Stanford’s Middle Plaza development under construction at 500 El Camino Real.
Menlo Park’s downtown plan permits buildings to go from two- to three stories and include housing along Santa Cruz, between El Camino and University Drive, when sites are redeveloped. So far there has only been one taker: a plan to redevelop 706 Santa Cruz with 13 residences on the upper levels, which is still being reviewed by the city.
The latest site will be anchored by a twostory café and outdoor seating area on Merrill geared at “patrons on their way in and out of the train station” and is designed to better serve foot traffic between Santa Cruz and Oak Grove Avenue with 15-footwide sidewalks, according to the developer. Rapp will construct 113 parking spaces on
the same level and in a twolevel underground garage. No on street parking spaces will be eliminated.
When the project was reviewed last February, some residents complained that it contained too few residences for a redevelopment across from the train station, given that the site could hold up to 36 units. When it was approved in May with the addition of one residence, going from eight to nine units, Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Fran Dehn, said it would help rejuvenate the downtown. Rapp is planning to provide two belowmarket units by building them in a planned housing development at 1162 El Camino, a site owned by Rapp that currently houses Feldman’s Books and SafeSpace.