MENLO PARK — Despite letting hundreds of employees go in recent weeks, the company behind Facebook is forging ahead with its plan to build a massive new mixed-use urban village complete with housing, office and shopping near its sprawling campus by the Bay.

After two years of intense planning and back-and-forth meetings between city officials and Meta — the company that owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger apps — the Menlo Park City Council this month voted unanimously to approve the new Willow Village development, a project that’s set to transform a sleepy industrial park into a walkable urban town center.

When Meta first approached the city in 2020 about replacing their offices on the east side of town with a new mixed-use development, city officials jumped at the opportunity to bring new housing, open space and amenities to a part of town that’s historically been underserved and lower income. In the intervening years, Meta has promised to build 1,730 units of housing, a hotel, a grocery store, an elevated curving park connecting to its headquarters, and a town square next to a modern office campus.

“At the end of the day this project is delivering a lot of what we want which is more housing below market and market rate and senior housing and money for below market rate funds, community amenities and the grocery store,” Wolosin said. “The project itself is really beautifully designed with a town square and community gathering spots. All of that goes to the scales of weighing the benefits and impacts of this project. In the long run, this is the right vote for our city.”

The revamped approach — a result of multiple negotiations with city officials — firms up the number of affordable and market-rate homes and reduces the amount of office space and Meta Platforms on-site employees compared with prior proposals for the new neighborhood.

But some council members are still worried that the project isn’t delivering all that it could, and that it may actually make transportation and connectivity in the area more difficult. While many cities on the Peninsula are focusing housing on the Caltrain corridor, Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Mountain View city officials have chosen to put new developments in industrial zones away from transit to avoid neighborhood pushback.

Councilmember Cecilia Taylor — who represents the Belle Haven neighborhood site of the project — said that circulation and traffic in the area will be a huge problem for her community. While noting that she can live with some aspects of the project, Taylor said there were other things “we’ll continue to talk about moving forward,” but traffic on Willow Road appears inevitable with the current plan.

Taylor wants to make it a priority to connect this new town center to Menlo Park’s Caltrain station and the rest of the city. As part of the negotiating committee with Meta, she also pushed hard to make sure her community would see as little disruption as possible and gain from the project. She was instrumental in making sure that the open spaces, grocery stores and housing are built first before offices and other commercial spaces.

“We have community members that will live here in about three years, and they need to have access so it’s not necessary to drive to the project,” Taylor said. “Willow Road is only so big, and regardless, we’ll have traffic. With transportation and circulation, that’s an area where Meta and city staff and the council and the public will need to continuously be in conversation just so we can make sure everyone is held accountable for impacts.”

Taylor also pushed back on YIMBY Menlo Park residents who wanted the project to have the maximum amount of housing possible. She said she’s supportive of bringing more housing to her district, but she doesn’t want it to be a disproportionate amount. Taylor believes future housing should be spread out across the small city.

Councilmember Betsy Nash also raised worries about the impact that new office space will have on traffic and rents. While it’s rare to have office developments include housing and retail in such a unique way, Nash cited a staff report that says to balance out the project it would need 815 more homes than currently proposed. Meta has said it expects about 20% of its employees will live at Willow Village, but Nash doesn’t buy it, calling it an “optimistic view.”

“The 1,730 units is wonderful and must be applauded, but having said that, with all the new office and retail and services that will be involved, we end up with a deficit,” Nash said. “Having been discussing this for months and months — but most recently intently for the last few days — I’m going to have to be satisfied with that. But I’d like to see us talk about jobs-housing linkage during (the housing element) conversation.”

In a statement to this news organization, Meta Direct of Real Estate Development Brian Zubradt said he was happy with the council’s unanimous decision to approve the project.

“We appreciate the city council’s review and approval of Willow Village, a once in a generation opportunity that will deliver a vibrant mixed-use community that not only facilitates the future of work and collaboration, but also includes much needed housing, jobs, parks, neighborhood retail, and other community amenities,” Zubradt said.