May 6, 2025
Mayor Combs and Members of the City Council,
City of Menlo Park
Via email: city.council@menlopark.org
Subject: 333 Ravenswood Avenue (Parkline) - Lane Partners LLC
Dear Mayor Combs and Members of the Menlo Park City Council,
This is in reference to the letter the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter’s Sustainable Land Use Committee sent to the City on March 22, 2024, in which we urged the City to set safety standards for biotech development in the City.
Since then, we have been following the progress of Menlo Park's planning review of the SRI / Parkline Master Plan and we are very concerned that the large new housing development proposed by Lane Partners is wrapped around an older, existing BSL3 biological laboratory structure on the SRI campus.
We are in favor of new housing in Menlo Park, but placing new housing so close to a BSL3 lab creates a potential liability for the City, and a threat to future resident safety due to the very real possibility of biological contamination if the integrity of the lab should ever be breached either through natural disaster, man made disaster, or domestic terrorism. The most likely cause of a release is human error.
BSL3 labs study some of the most virulent diseases1 so any accidental release of infectious pathogens poses a major safety concern for neighboring residents and "sensitive receptors"2
SRI is the current owner of the property and Menlo Park is responsible for approving the proposed Master Plan. Both share a responsibility to assure that all new developments on the site are safe from any current or future health hazards. Housing is incompatible with a BSL3 lab. The only safe way to develop housing on the SRI site is for the City to zone the site to allow only the safer BSL1 and BSL2 labs, and for SRI to agree to either downgrade the existing BSL3 lab to BSL1 or BSL2, or to relocate the BSL3 lab to a different location on or off campus. At this time, the community is in the dark as to the level of risk, as are the first responders who would have to make decisions on whether to enter the facility in the case of an emergency.
Several cities on the Peninsula have already studied the safety issues related to biotech lab safety levels and have decided that BSL3&4 labs in dense residential and mixed-use neighborhoods are a potential safety hazard. Neither the City nor the County has the specialized staff and expertise to deal with the potential emergency situations and therefore they have taken action to protect residents.
San Carlos only allows BSL 1&2 labs and bans all BSL 3&4 labs in their city. Millbrae bans BSL 3&4 in sensitive portions of the City, and Redwood City's Downtown Specific Plan bans all BSL3&4 labs in their Mixed Use District, while also making BSL 1&2 labs a Conditional Use.
Attached is our previous March 22, 2024 letter that includes our Guidelines for Biosafety Levels (BSL) in Biotech Laboratories.
In addition, we believe that the Redwood City ordinance3 that addresses Mixed Use in their Downtown Plan could be used as a prototype for a similar ordinance in Menlo Park. This could be applied to the Mixed Use SRI campus where the existing BSL3 lab is located in too close proximity to the proposed Lane housing development.
We urge the city to work with Lane Partners and SRI to resolve this potential public safety conflict.
Respectfully Yours,
Gita Dev, FAIA, Chair, Sustainable Land Use Committee
Cc: Corinna Sandmeier, Principal Planner, cdsandmeier@menlopark.gov
Council Members Jeff Schmidt jdschmidt@menlopark.gov & Cecilia Taylor cttaylor@menlopark.gov
James Eggers, Director, Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter
Attachment: Sierra Club Letter dated March 22, 2024
1 BSL-3 laboratories handle airborne pathogens that can cause severe or lethal diseases. Facilities require specialized containment equipment and controlled access. Anthrax, Yellow fever, St. Louis encephalitis, COVID-19 and West Nile virus are examples of agents requiring biological safety level 3 practices and containment.
2 Sensitive receptors are children, elderly, asthmatics and others who are at a heightened risk of negative health outcomes due to exposure to air pollution. The locations where these sensitive receptors congregate are considered sensitive receptor locations. Sensitive Receptor locations may include residential developments, hospitals, schools, and day care centers, etc.
3 Redwood City Downtown Specific Plan (RDPP):
https://www.redwoodcity.org/home/showpublisheddocument/9991/638406556186730000 Pages 4 & 5 of this Section of The Downtown Precise Plan address biotech labs (Page 47 & 48 of the entire RDPP document)