Month: June 2009

Lost in the fray of developer driven project priorities is the fact that it makes very little sense to have a discussion of senior housing based on a such a narrow segment of our community.

Let me back up here for a moment.  Last week, it was determined by a 3-2 vote at the council meeting with the usual suspects supporting it and Councilmembers Lamar Heystek and Sue Greenwald opposing, that there would be some sort of community based discussion on senior housing needs.

The Vanguard has received a letter sent to City Council, City Staff, and the Senior Citizens Commission complaining about comments made by Stephen Hayes, a Senior Citizens Commission member at the June 2, 2009 Davis City Council meeting.  His offense?  Speaking out against the proposed senior citizens development.

The individual writes:

Council last night had a series of dizzying substitute motions during the course what should have been a fairly routine discussion on the renewal of Measure J.  As a result, the council might have passed the renewal of Measure J–they appear to have–or they might have created a whole new monster that will complicate the process of simple renewal.

A couple of dozen citizens came out on Tuesday night, all but one in support of the renewal of Measure J with no sunset and no exemptions.  The one exception was the owner of the 43-acre Signature property just east of Harper Junior High and south of the Mace Curve.  He argued for the inclusion of his property as an exemption to Measure J.

The issue of the renewal of Measure J was at one point expected to be rather controversial.  However at least looking at the staff report, that may not be the case.

In 2000, Measure J was passed by the voters of Davis by a 53.6% yes vote giving the citizens the right to vote and determine whether land can be re-designated from Agriculture or Open Space to any urban usage.  The measure however, sunsets at the end of 2010 and must be reconsidered by the voters.

Back on April 1, the Vanguard visited the Westlake site and took photos of possible code violations.  The Vanguard has now learned that following those photos, the city of Davis issued a notice of Violation to the property owners on April 9, 2009.

In particular, two items were cited, the loading dock “filled with earth” and a cracked window that had been boarded over.

On November 3, 2005, literally four days before the 2005 election that would see Measure X, the Measure J vote that Davis voters would overwhelming vote down by a 60-40 margin, an article ran in the Davis Enterprise, whereby the No on Measure X campaign complained among other things that the Covell Village Company and their “Smart Planning – Yes on X” Campaign had failed to disclose the true cost of more than a dozen glossy campaign mailers sent to thousands of Davis voters as well as other campaign expenses such as campaign worker salaries.

The Vanguard has now learned over three and a half years later that there was significant merit to that complaint. On April 3, 2008 three amended statements  using the Fair Political Practice Commission (FPPC) California Form 460 were filed with the Davis City Clerk, two and a half years after the termination of campaign papers were filed on January 31, 2006 claiming a zero balance and a final expenditure of $385,274.75 for the campaign that lasted from July 28, 2005 until December 31, 2005.

It was a packed house Tuesday evening before the Davis City Council as dozens of people on both sides of the issue came to speak and listen to a discussion on development.

Accusations flew back and forth as even Covell Village developers John Whitcombe and Bill Streng came forward to speak.