Resources

Places to go, things to see.

Primary sources — public records, official filings, and the ordinance text — organized for reference.

Comparison & analysis

RFP Fast Facts

Side-by-side facts on all three developer proposals — units, income mix, subsidies, lease terms, and construction phasing — checked against the Request for Proposals (RFP)'s own baseline requirements and footnoted to source.

Public records

Parking Plazas 1–3 RFP — full text
City of Menlo Park
Sept. 15, 2025

Developer responses

Alliant Communities — RFP response
Developer filing · 162 pages · 8.5 MB · archived here
Dec. 15, 2025
Related California / Alta Housing — RFP response
Developer filing · with conceptual plans · 67 pages · 2.6 MB · archived here
Dec. 15, 2025
Presidio Bay Ventures — RFP response
Developer filing · 70 pages · 5.3 MB · archived here
Dec. 15, 2025

Ballot arguments — filing packets

Argument against the measure — complete filing packet
San Mateo County ACRE submission form, signers forms, and argument text · 8 pages · 2.7 MB
Received Aug. 10, 2026
Argument in favor of the measure — complete filing packet
San Mateo County ACRE submission form, signers forms, and argument text · 5 pages · 0.6 MB
Received Aug. 11, 2026
Rebuttal to the argument in favor — complete filing packet
Filed by the measure’s opponents · San Mateo County ACRE submission form, authorization and signers forms, and rebuttal text · 9 pages · 2.8 MB
Received Aug. 17, 2026
Rebuttal to the argument against — complete filing packet
Filed by the measure’s proponents · 6 pages · 0.7 MB
Filed Aug. 18, 2026
City Attorney’s impartial analysis
Prepared by City Attorney Nira F. Doherty under Elections Code § 9280 · 2 pages · 0.1 MB
Aug. 17, 2026

The two primary arguments were obtained from the City Clerk as public records. The two rebuttals and the impartial analysis were obtained from San Mateo County ACRE, which posts all six Measure P documents. The City’s own Measure P page has slots for them and had not yet posted them when these copies were retrieved on Aug. 20, 2026. Redactions of phone numbers, email addresses, street addresses and signatures are the county’s own; MonitorMenlo.news added none and removed none. Document metadata was stripped before posting. Scanned colour pages were resampled from 300 to 200 dpi to make the files usable on a phone; bitonal pages are the untouched originals.

Campaign materials

Save Downtown Menlo — official campaign site
Campaign · Vote Yes on the ordinance
2025–2026

Campaign finance filings

External sites & advocacy

Independent sites, city pages, and campaign committees referenced throughout this site or useful for further reading. Listed for reference — inclusion here is not an endorsement of any claim, campaign, or position.

City of Menlo Park · Campaign filings

Campaign Finance Filings (Form 460)

The City Clerk’s public portal for local candidate and ballot-measure campaign statements — contributions, expenditures, and the FPPC Form 460 filings referenced throughout our reporting.

City of Menlo Park · Official budget

Adopted FY2026–27 Budget

The city's official adopted General Fund and Capital Improvement budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026, published on the city's OpenGov transparency portal. The primary source for verifying reserve levels, department spending, and any council-approved subsidy tied to the parking plaza project.

City of Menlo Park · Project page

Development on Downtown Parking Lots

The city's own project hub for the downtown parking plazas plan — RFQ/RFP documents, developer proposals, staff reports, and meeting schedules. The most direct primary source for the city's official planning documents and timeline. The three developer responses themselves are linked directly under "Developer responses," below.

Community blog · The Almanac

Creating a More Vibrant Menlo Park

A recurring Almanac blog by longtime resident Dana Hendrickson, arguing the downtown parking plazas are poorly suited to the city's affordable-housing plan and pressing for alternative sites and broader downtown improvements. Independent commentary, not affiliated with either ballot campaign.

Independent budget tracker

Menlo Park Budget

An independent site built by a member of the city's Finance and Audit Commission, translating the city's official OpenGov budget filings into plain-English summaries of General Fund spending, the annual deficit, and reserve trends — useful context for claims about the city's capacity to fund parking-garage subsidies.

Advocacy group · Vote No coalition

Menlo Together

A Peninsula housing, sustainability, and racial-equity advocacy group co-founded in 2018 that has organized in support of the city's downtown housing plan, and is now part of the coalition urging a "No" vote on the Downtown Parking Plazas Ordinance.

Community advocacy · Downtown alternatives

Reimagine Menlo Park

A companion site to Dana Hendrickson's Almanac blog above, this site run by the same author catalogues housing locations and downtown-improvement proposals as alternatives to building affordable housing on the parking plazas.

Advocacy group · Vote Yes campaign

Save Downtown Menlo

The resident and merchant coalition that qualified the Downtown Parking Plazas Ordinance for the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot. Its site lays out the case for requiring voter approval before the city could convert any downtown parking plaza to an alternate use, and campaigns for a "Yes" vote on the measure it authored.

Advocacy group · Vote No campaign

Vote NO on Menlo Park Anti-Housing Initiative

The official campaign site opposing the Downtown Parking Plazas Ordinance, organized by the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County together with Menlo Together. It frames the measure as a barrier to affordable housing and urges a "No" vote in November.

Local news · Nonprofit newsroom

The Almanac

The nonprofit hometown newspaper and news site for Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, and Woodside, published by Embarcadero Media Foundation. Its staff reporting on the parking plazas fight, council votes, and the ballot measure is a primary independent news source cited throughout this site.

Local news · Daily print & digital

Palo Alto Daily Post

An independently owned daily newspaper covering Palo Alto and the mid-Peninsula, including regular reporting on Menlo Park City Council votes and the downtown parking plazas project. Only a portion of its coverage appears online; full reporting runs in the print edition.