The Lawsuit

(on pause)

In April 2025, Save Downtown Menlo filed a lawsuit against the City of Menlo Park (click here to read it) in response to the City’s issuance of an RFQ in January. Legal challenges to city land-use decisions must be filed within 90 days of the action.

Both parties have since agreed that litigation is unnecessary for now because the City has not yet taken a final action to convert the downtown parking plazas to housing. Pursuing the case now would needlessly use taxpayer and community resources on a procedural dispute over ripeness - that is, whether the case is ready for the court to decide. For that reason, the lawsuit has been dismissed without prejudice — meaning no claims were decided against us and our full legal rights remain intact.

If and when the City moves forward with an actual decision to repurpose the plazas, Save Downtown Menlo is fully prepared to return to court to defend our community’s downtown.

(Note: Similar lawsuits are also moving forward in other cities, such as Palo Alto, where the courts have rejected City claims that these challenges are “without merit.”)