Opponents of a plan to convert downtown parking lots into affordable housing say they’ve collected enough signatures to put the issue before voters, potentially halting an effort to build 345 affordable units on lots that currently provide more than 500 parking spaces.

Save Downtown Menlo Park, a coalition of local businesses and downtown patrons, submitted 3,440 signatures to City Hall last Friday — well above the 10% threshold of registered voters needed to qualify the measure for the ballot.

The proposed initiative would bar the city from selling, leasing or giving away its eight downtown parking lots without voter approval. It specifically targets actions that would reduce or limit public parking for downtown customers, workers or visitors, and would require a majority vote of the ci

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