would HOUSING + PARKING
be GOOD FOR BUSINESS?

Let’s assume Menlo Park pays for parking garages to replace the lost parking spaces? Wouldn’t the density from this “downtown development” be good for business?

No, for two reasons:

first - parking garages are a barrier to our community

When running errands, people often need to push a shopping cart, tow a child, hold a bulky item they just purchased, etc. And some will have health issues that reduce mobility. We cannot expect these members of our community to contend with multi-level parking structures up to a block away. They will drive to a strip mall or shop online.

Or if someone was thinking about stopping for a quick coffee - they won’t.

second - it’s the wrong kind of density

Increasing density is good for business. But businesses do not care about the number of people within X miles. They care about the number of people within X minutes.

According to the 2022 Menlo Park Downtown Market Study (page 5), our downtown’s “trade area” is the daytime population within a 20 minute drive of downtown - about 370,000 people.

However, housing in the parking lots will increase total transit time:

1.        There will be more traffic congestion.
2.        It will take longer to find parking because you must deal with a garage or compete for a space in an outdoor lot.
3.        You will have a longer walk from your car to your destination.

All told, it’s fair to expect a 5 minute delay.

So, for someone to be within the 20 minute range, they must now be within a 15 minute drive, not 20.

We can use app.traveltime.com to see what that looks like:

Yes, housing in the parking lots would slightly increase the pool of potential downtown customers (just as it would if the housing was in the Civic Center).

But the resulting inaccessibility would cause our businesses to lose about half of their customers. In turn, we would lose our businesses, along with the services, jobs, and sales tax revenue that they provide. It would be a blow to the heart of Menlo Park.

That’s a reduction in our downtown’s trade area by about 150,000 people.

What about businesses that can only draw people from 15 minutes away? For them, the range shrinks from 15 to 10 minutes:

That’s a loss of over half the market.

The Result

That’s over a 50% decrease in market size.

5 minutes may not sound like a lot, but the people on the outside of our trade area, it's makes all the difference.