by David Thompson
A key strategy of the No on L Campaign has been to relentlessly and falsely attack the validity of the 150 apartment low income senior campus that will be built as a part of the West Davis Active Adult Community (WDAAC). At the same time, Alan Pryor and No on L say they fully support the affordable housing that they strenuously intend to stop.
But if you, the Davis voter, vote NO, there won’t be any affordable housing for 170 Davis low income seniors desperately in need of low cost subsidized apartments so they can stay in Davis. This is the highest number of affordable apartments ever proposed in the City of Davis.
Davis Senior Housing Communities (DSHC) will build this housing just as they have built Eleanor Roosevelt Circle (60 apartments) in Davis and Heritage Commons (114 apartments with another 44 added next year) in Dixon. Neighborhood Partners LLC (NP) has built over 1,100 apartments in Davis and Yolo County. See our two decade local track record at www.npllc.org/projects. There is at least $250 million of built real estate as proof of our solid work. And No on L says blithely – it will never be built.
When people open their doors at WDAAC, 27% of those doors will be opened by some of the over 400 low income seniors on local waiting lists that need homes in Davis. That is the highest number of 
affordable doors of any development in Davis.
No on L is aggressively attempting to convince Davis voters that the affordable housing will never be built, won’t be financed, and the land is worth nothing. All untrue and unsubstantiated parts of Pryor’s callous effort to defeat Measure L.
If he and his associates are successful in that effort, they will stop 170 Davis seniors from having a future in our community. Don’t let them!
Look at what No on L’s Alan Pryor has claimed publicly on just October 12th in the Vanguard and then review our answers. Almost every other day No on L’s Alan Pryor issues another unsupported claim. It ought to make you think twice about the validity of Pryor’s other claims about WDAAC. Davis voters deserve honesty not hyperbole. It is cruel to know that hundreds of low income seniors’ lives in Davis are at stake due to this irresponsible rhetoric.
Please read the following information and please vote YES on Measure L to serve our low income seniors.
“On the south side (of the low income senior housing of DSHC) will be the six lanes of Covell roaring by.” – Alan Pryor of No on L, Vanguard Comment, Oct 12, 2018
Answer: A preposterous untrue claim. At the midpoint location where West Covell Blvd runs alongside DSHC at WDAAC, Covell is by then only a two lane highway. West Covell is never ever a six lane highway roaring by. Check out; https://www.google.com/maps/@38.5607622,-121.7754387,180m/data=!3m1!1e3
“4.5 acres of dense, low-income housing” – Alan Pryor of No on L. Vanguard comment, October 12, 2018
Answer: 150 one bedroom apartments for seniors on 4.5 acres of land = 33 apartments per acre. By apartment standards this is an attractive development with lots of usable open space. Eleanor Roosevelt Circle (ERC) also has a 2.3 acre site with a density of 26 apartments per acre. Take a bird’s eye view of ERC on Google Earth:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/625+Cantrill+Dr,+Davis,+CA+95618.
“And you tout that the seniors will be able to grow their own food on site…but in what? Flower pots on their patios? With only 4.25 acres available to cram in 150 apartments, it is really disingenuous to try to claim there will be a community garden for the seniors.” – Alan Pryor of No on L. Vanguard comment, October 12, 2018
Answer: DSHC/NP has a series of 10 large garden beds (some built by Davis Eagle Scouts) in two locations on the property and a large community garden at ERC. We also have a large community orchard on our Fifth Street side with scores of fruit and citrus trees at ERC. You can see the flourishing garden beds at http://npllc.org/projects/eleanor-roosevelt-circle/. See our attractive open space flagship senior community on Google Earth. https://www.google.com/maps/place/625+Cantrill+Dr,+Davis,+CA+95618.
We have sixteen raised garden beds at Heritage Commons in Dixon at two locations. A community garden and additional garden beds are being added next year in the third phase. See them on Google Earth or at www.npllc.org/projects.
“And without any northwest quadrant Master Plan to guide their development…” – Alan Pryor of No on L. Vanguard comment, October 12, 2018
Answer: This Measure L vote is the culmination of two years of planning, public hearings, and community outreach. Senior housing next to Sutter Davis Hospital, Sutter Davis Emergency Department, Sutter Davis Urgent Care, Cardiac Rehab & Communicare etc. makes ultimate good sense. The professional planning answer will always be – the most valuable use for that WDAAC location is senior housing.
If Measure L passes, Davis seniors will obtain a lot of needed opportunities at WDAAC.
But foremost to DSHC and NP is that we will be given 4.5 acres of land worth about $4 million dollars on which to build a 150 apartment low income senior campus. We will build homes for 170 Davis low income seniors of whom 70% will be single elderly females and 37% will be minorities. That’s the inclusive Davis we want to build.
A No vote stops low income Davis seniors from living in Davis. With a four to five year Davis wait list, there is nowhere else for over 400 Davis seniors to go.
Please give them an affordable home in Davis by voting Yes on Measure L.
David J. Thompson of Neighborhood Partners, LLC. For more information, please visit www.npllc.org/projects and http://westdavisactive.com/tag/west-davis-active-adult-community/
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This article has now been published for over 24 hours and there are zero comments on it. Is the reason for zero comments because David Thompson’s arguments are wholly effective in the points they make … or wholly ineffective?
Maybe because by this point almost everybody has realized that the affordable housing components is just 5% of the site area, and the developers are cynically using it as a Trojan Horse to try to sneak in an exclusive and discriminatory luxury suburban sprawl development on the vast majority of the site?
At this point, having known David Thompson for 20 year, having understood his sincerity (and even butted heads with him at times), understanding his fundamental objectives, and knowing his record of success on these matters, I’m going to trust that he has portrayed the situation accurately. David generally does not get involved openly in election campaigns, so his willingness to make these statements is telling.
Richard McCann: Potentially receiving a land donation claimed to be worth $4 million tends to have an effect on someone’s “willingness to make statements.” It’s a shame that affordable housing developers are put in the position to have to advocate for luxury sprawl developments.
I am also highly skeptical of the land valuation. ~$1m/acre seems extremely high for land dedicated to a single, very narrow use. That seems to be a very significant impairment of the value.
Despite the bellicose tone of Thompson’s editorials the fact remains that the developers are not tying the the success of their project to the completion or even financing of the affordable component. This tells me all I need to know.