Month: March 2009

The Vanguard learned yesterday evening that Lewis Properties has withdrawn their application to re-zone the 100-acre empty site that used to occupy the Hunt Wesson Cannery in Davis as well as to the sale of an additional 60-acre site located next to the land fill in Yolo County.  Citing increasing costs and lack of clear opportunity for success, the developers have dropped their application to change the zoning from light industrial to residential for the purposes of developing a mixed-use site that would support 610 residential units and additional business.

In a letter that Mayor Pro Tem Saylor read aloud at last night’s council meeting, Lewis Properties told the city:

After criticism at the last workshop on the General Plan the city staff has pared down the costs of the proposed projects.  The concern was expressed during the last meeting that a traditional general plan update would cost between $1 and $3 million.  Concern focused on what city priorities ought to be during difficult fiscal times.  Moreover, this would necessitate “a commitment to the multi-year process would need to be made at the beginning as it would be potentially wasteful and costly to stop after the process begin.”

So the staff is looking at creating a general plan update program that can adapt the tasks to the current fiscal situation.

At last week’s City Council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Don Saylor placed an item on the agenda that would exempt from the City’s Noise Ordinance, Schools and Day Care centers.  It seemed like a strange item at the time.  Mayor Pro Tem Saylor described the noise as the natural and delightful noise of children.  He openly wondered who could object to the sounds of children, implying that those who did were simply being selfish and insensitive.

However, what Mr. Saylor did not discuss was the ongoing problems that a specific group of neighbors have had with a specific facility whose noise and other problems has been anything but delightful.

In a communication to the owners of the Westlake Plaza Shopping Center, Davis Advocates for Neighborhood Groceries (DANG) strongly admonished the owners of the Westlake Shopping Center for reneging on a previous agreement which has resulted in their failure to secure the Delanos in an effort to bring a viable Grocery Store to West Davis.

As the Vanguard reported two weeks ago, DANG along with consultants for the owners had found a grocer willing to move a grocery store into the spot vacated by Food Fair in May of 2006.  However, when the majority owner, Farrokh Hosseinyoun pulled his promised $250,000 in capital, the deal fell through.

It was 11:30 am on a Friday, and Community Chambers was packed full of members of the public.  It was standing room only as over 100 people came to see Dan Burden show us the possibilities for how Fifth Street can go from a four lane thoroughfare to a two lane road and yet still serve the same vehicle flow in a slower but safer manner.

Not everyone is or was convinced by the show.  The residents from Old North Davis Neighborhoods who have to deal with the congestion and dangers on a regular basis certainly would like to see the change.  The business community however is not convinced that the changes would not impact the ability of people to get to downtown.