Guest Commentary: Planning Commission and Majority of Public Commenters Strongly Criticize Village Farms Project and DEIR Part I

The Village Farms Draft Environmental Report (DEIR) was released roughly a month ago and is required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) law to circulate to allow public comments to be received in writing and verbally at public meetings. Last Wednesday, Feb. 12^th the City of Davis Planning Commission meeting agenized comments and discussion from the planning commissioners, and allowed the public to voice their comments.

The outcome of the meeting was that the planning commissioners expressed significant concerns and had much criticism of the Draft EIR as well as raised other issues regarding the project.  Likewise, the majority of the more than 50 public commentors, both in person and by recorded voicemail, disapproved of the project for many reasons that have been pointed out before (see previous article links below.) However, a majority of the commissioners and some public commentors wanted to see an analysis of a “reduced footprint” alternative, similar to one included in the Covell Village DEIR by the same consulting group.

Many of the issues and more have been raise in an earlier Op-ed:

Guest Commentary: Village Farms DEIR Is Inadequate, Project Would Bring Massive Impacts and Costs

Part I of this article provides some relevant Planning Commissioner comments focused on the DEIR and other Village Farms project issues. Part II of the article will follow tomorrow which reflects comments made by many public commenters with concerns about the Village Farms project and the DEIR.

Planning Commissioner comments

Chair Michelle Weiss raised the issues of the need for grade-separated crossings for the project for the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians. She expressed concern for the destruction of 952 trees planned to be removed was a lot of trees to lose.

Commissioner Vince McLaughlin made clear that there needed to be analysis of  a “reduced footprint” alternative. He also expressed the need for the DEIR to address the issues raised by the Cannery neighbors.

Commissioner Alan Bennett expressed support for analysis of a reduced footprint alternative as well.

Commissioner Georgina Valencia expressed concerns about the lack of safe bicycle and pedestrian access to the project. She also said that the DEIR was deficient in having a stormwater analysis.

Commissioner Catherine Brinkley also reiterated the need for analysis of a reduced footprint alternative.

Commissioner Johannes Troost had great concern about the traffic impacts and questioned the road lane capacities and how was circulation supposed to work at Covell Blvd. and Pole Line Rd.? He asked what the DEIR solutions were to these traffic impacts in an area that was already dangerous to bicyclists and pedestrians?

Commissioner Rowe had the most critical comments including the many inadequacies of the DEIR that he included in 41 pages if comments and concerns he submitted regarding the DEIR. But he also stated that a ”reduced acreage” alternative analysis should have been included particularly since it was the “Environmentally Superior” alternative from the Covell Village DEIR. He explained the reasons including to avoid building on the enormous flood plain and getting the housing far away from the unlined Old City Landfill and Sewage Treatment Plant leaking toxics and other chemical contaminants.

“If we were voting tonight to certify the EIR, I could not do that.” That was the unequivocal statement from Greg Rowe during a recent Planning Commission hearing, where he raised serious concerns about the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for Village Farms. He said there were many things in this Draft EIR that deviated from standards of practice. He criticized the Alternatives Analysis of the Village Farms DEIR as fundamentally flawed and felt that the City essentially chose housing unit counts to meet a pre-determined Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) target. He pointed out that with one DEIR alternative included, the City incrementally increased the project’s intensity until it reached 2,700 units—50% larger than the original proposal. According to Rowe, this directly contradicts CEQA’s intent to develop alternatives that reduce environmental impacts, not escalate them.

Rowe also criticized the City’s failure to include the “Reduced Acreage” Alternative in the DEIR alternatives analysis which was previously identified in the 2004 Covell Village EIR as the environmentally superior option. That alternative, which proposed 1,500 units which was rather high, but it significantly reduced environmental impacts regarding the landfill, traffic, and biological resources. However, the reduced footprint was ignored by the City in favor of high-density proposals. He called this omission a corruption of the process.

Bicycle and pedestrian safety was another major concern. As an experienced cyclist, Rowe described the Covell Blvd. and Pole Line  Rd. intersection as dangerously unsafe and rejected the EIR’s reliance on superficial mitigations like signage and striping as inadequate. The EIR commits to grade-separated crossings (i.e. undercrossings or overcrossings) but lacks financial guarantees and a clear timeline, raising concerns that these crossings may never materialize. Without them, he warned, the project poses a direct safety risk to the hundreds of students who would rely on them for daily commutes.

Rowe also criticized the EIR’s VMT assumptions, arguing that they ignore real-world commuting behavior. The claim that Village Farms would house UC Davis commuters fails to account for two-income households, where one partner’s job may still anchor the family outside Davis. Instead of reducing traffic, the project would simply shift congestion elsewhere.

Ultimately, Rowe stated that could not support the DEIR, stating that it fails to evaluate appropriate alternatives, relies on unrealistic transportation assumptions, and omits critical safety measures. He warned that the project, as proposed, would exacerbate congestion, create serious safety risks, and impose unacceptable environmental costs.

The comments and discussion by the Planning Commissioners  made clear that the Village Farms DEIR was inadequate and that there was a plethora of missing information and details.  It is evident that the Village Farms DEIR has been rushed to accommodate the developers wishes to get to a Measure J/R/D vote quickly.

The other important commissioner commentary was that the majority of the planning commissioners agreed that a reduced footprint analysis should have included in the DEIR. What was not discussed was that there would need to be two modifications of the previous reduced acreage alternative, including preserve the vernal pools and downsizing  the number of units significantly for the remaining 200 acres to maybe 900-1,000 units or less.

In summary, the Planning Commission overall had strong criticism of the Village Farms DEIR, due to the many inadequacies of information missing from the document. In addition, a majority of the commissioners agreed that the DEIR needed to include an analysis of a smaller footprint alternative of building only below the channel downsizing the project. This alternative was included in the Covell Village project DEIR done by the same consultants (Raney) which Commissioner Rowe elaborated on in detail. This alternative would avoid building on the enormous 200-acre flood plain bringing flooding risks, and distancing the housing away from the toxics and other chemical contaminants from the unlined Old City Landfill and Sewage Treatment Plant and downsizing the number of housing units to a reasonable number to help reduce the traffic impacts.

The deadline for submitting comments for the Village Farms Draft EIR is coming up soon. Residents with concerns regarding the Village Farms project and it DEIR are encouraged to submit their comments within the next few days before Tuesday, Feb. 25^th by emailing City Staff member Dara Dungworth at ddungworth@cityofdavis.org  The City weblink to the DEIR is at https://www.cityofdavis.org/city-hall/community-development/development-projects/village-farms-davis where you then click on the CEQA section.

Davis citizens concerned about the Village Farms project can contact Citizens for Responsible Planning at citizens@dcn.org for more information.

— Eileen Samitz is a former Davis Planning Commissioner and served on the city of Davis 2001 General Plan Update land-use committee and the subsequent Housing Element Update Committee.

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