ACLU NorCal Announces its Opposition to Menlo Park’s Anti-Housing Initiative

The ACLU of Northern California announces its opposition to the Menlo Park Anti-Housing Initiative and urges a NO vote in November.

This measure is presented as a parking question, but its effect is to create obstacles to affordable housing development by requiring a citywide vote on these projects. At a time of a housing affordability crisis, we need solutions, not obstacles to housing development.

California has tried this type of exclusionary policy before. In 1950, voters passed Proposition 10, which created Article 34 of the state constitution, requiring local approval at the ballot box before a city could build any “low rent housing project.” The result was to hamper many affordable housing projects so severely that they became possible only when a majority of existing residents first agreed to let their new neighbors in. In the years since, the legislature has passed laws to clarify that the scope of that constitutional amendment is narrow.

On its face, the Menlo Park measure is about parking availability—but its impact is even broader than prior exclusionary policies. It erects serious procedural barriers to the much-needed development of any affordable housing on parking lots.

Housing development should not be contingent on a city vote. We are proud to stand with the coalition to defeat this measure, and we ask the voters of Menlo Park to reject it before it sets this community on a new trajectory of exclusion. We also urge a No vote to keep this exclusionary approach from spreading to other cities in our region and state. To learn more about the campaign visit www.homesformenlopark.com.