The Davis City Council unanimously approved a new economic development strategic plan Tuesday night, directing staff to return in roughly 60 days with a detailed work plan outlining implementation steps and policy decisions needed to advance the strategy.
The plan, presented by Economic Development Director Katie Yancey, is intended to strengthen Davis’s economic base, improve the city’s fiscal outlook and address longstanding barriers to business development.
Council members broadly expressed support for the framework and emphasized the need to move quickly on implementation.
Councilmember Linda Deos described the proposal as “a fabulous plan to move with and move forward with,” adding that increasing economic activity would ultimately strengthen the city’s ability to fund community priorities.
“I see that by raising the economy of the city, by bringing in more revenues, it will raise the boat for all of us who live in this community and who are affected by it on a daily basis,” Deos said.
She said the city needs additional revenue to support infrastructure and housing programs and encouraged the council to address regulatory barriers that discourage businesses from locating in Davis.
“We’ve heard about these PD overlays. We’ve heard about permit streamlining,” Deos said, referring to Planned Development zoning overlays that can add layers of regulation to specific properties. “I want to do everything we can to remove those barriers.”
Councilmember Josh Chapman noted the importance of translating the strategy into concrete actions and measurable goals.
“When you look through the SWOT analysis… it’s so well done that there’s so much information there,” Chapman said. “How do we break it down and parse it out so that we know, okay, here are some things that we can do immediately… what are those things where we can have that conversation and direction tonight?”
Chapman said the city should identify “low hanging fruit” and establish clear timelines for achieving results, including metrics tied to economic growth.
He also suggested regular updates to the council to ensure the strategy remains a central priority for the city.
“This is huge for us,” Chapman said. “We have sat up here… and we’ve talked about this… bringing somebody on… and we’re finally there.”
Yancey told the council the plan includes performance metrics intended to track progress, including outreach to local businesses and targeted assistance to companies at risk of leaving the community.
She said the strategy also envisions regular reporting to the council and the public.
“What we’re proposing in the document is to provide quarterly web newsletters that provide progress, real timely progress every 90 days so that you know exactly what we’ve been doing and how we are advancing these objectives,” Yancey said.
Yancey said the performance measures included in the plan were designed to be achievable within the resources currently available to the city.
“The performance metrics that are in here are meant to be things that I think I can accomplish,” she said.
Council members also highlighted the importance of strengthening the city’s relationship with the University of California, Davis, which several described as the region’s largest economic asset.
Councilmember Bapu Vaitla said the university should play a more prominent role in the city’s economic development strategy.
“To me, that’s by far our greatest asset in terms of economic development,” Vaitla said. “I don’t see a whole lot in that immediate action list about how we get things going with UC Davis.”
He suggested the city focus on capturing startups and innovations emerging from university research labs.
“I think we need to capture the folks who are coming off of campus with some business idea,” said Councilmember Gloria Partida. “Those are the things I think that we need to capture.”
Partida said many university researchers develop technologies and spin-off companies that often leave Davis to locate in other cities.
“Figuring out what is it that they need and making that easy for them to be here,” she said, should be a priority.
Council members also discussed the city’s reputation in regional economic development circles and the need to improve Davis’s ability to attract new investment.
Deos said the city’s regulatory environment and land use constraints may contribute to the perception that Davis is difficult for businesses to enter.
“I wonder if part of that reason is because of these barriers that we have here that made it too difficult for them to be here,” Deos said, referring to the university’s decision to develop Aggie Square in Sacramento rather than Davis.
Yancey acknowledged that rebuilding the city’s economic reputation will take time and require sustained effort.
“I think it will take us a long time to recover our reputation,” she said.
Yancey said the strategy balances short-term revenue needs with longer-term efforts to reshape the city’s economic environment.
“This is a report that’s done in recognition of revenue intervention strategies,” Yancey said. “There are lots of different ways that you can approach economic development.”
She said the city’s fiscal challenges required focusing on strategies that can produce results within the next several years.
“It is my professional opinion that that will not yield the revenue generation intervention that is necessary to keep the city from what its long-term budget forecasts are predicting,” she said, referring to alternative approaches centered primarily on small-scale local wealth-building strategies.
Mayor Donna Neville said the council’s discussion reflected a strong desire to address barriers that could hinder economic development efforts.
“What I have heard from everyone here is a desire to remove certain impediments that would prevent you from moving forward,” Neville said.
Neville said the council wants staff to analyze the city’s existing land use policies, particularly the extensive system of Planned Development overlays.
“Why is it there and then identifying them and then you sort of map it out for us,” Neville said, referring to the PD zones.
The council ultimately approved three motions related to the economic development effort.
First, the council unanimously approved the strategic economic development plan itself.
Second, the council approved a staff request to prepare an analysis of the city’s property tax and sales tax base to identify ways to improve fiscal performance.
Third, the council directed Yancey to return within approximately 60 days with a detailed work plan outlining decision points for the council, including analysis of zoning barriers, strategies for engaging UC Davis, branding efforts and potential policy changes.
The work plan will allow the council to prioritize specific actions and determine how best to allocate city resources to implement the strategy.
Yancey said staff could return with the requested information within two months.
“My guess is it would be about two months that we could return with that information,” she said.
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The Davis City Council unanimously approved a new economic development strategic plan Tuesday night, directing staff to return in roughly 60 days with a detailed work plan outlining implementation steps and policy decisions needed to advance the strategy.
DISC Version/Iteration III, coming up.
Davis: The city where the council pushes never-ending development campaigns. Sometimes, multiple campaigns simultaneously.
Honestly, there’s not even sufficient time in-between campaigns to get the spanking machine adequately serviced.
Ron O
To the point, the City is not going to propose DiSC III in the form that was originally conceived. The plan will require more dispersed firms and should not rely on a single property owner as the catalyst.
I often revisit two Yolo County cities that have implemented strong development plans. Winters, a town significantly smaller than Davis began a renewal development plan probably more than 20 years ago. Their City Council, Chamber of Commerce, city staff, community, and visionary business leaders came together on a plan for Winters. The result is their thriving downtown, the PG&E training center, 2 hotels, The Palms Playhouse for many years, and more. John Pickerel while often behind the scenes was central in this effort.
The other City is West Sacramento. I remember hotel row in the town as a backwater of the county. The incorporated and once again led by an inspiring group of leaders envisioned a thriving future town with modern housing, a baseball stadium, river development, parks and more. They were strategic in planning how to be effective. Flooding safety was a priority and one or two staff members were designated to birddog each key state and national elected officials to ensure projects got approved and implemented. Certainly, former Mayor Christopher Cabaldon, now State Senator played a key role in that success.
A key element of success in both these cities was ongoing and open communication within these cities. I hope that it can work in our town. Cheers, Bob
Apparently, you’re not familiar with the continuing residential sprawl on the west side of Winters.
As far as West Sacramento is concerned, I believe that’s also true (sprawl on the south side of town, along the river). But perhaps more importantly (for the “housing/social justice” advocates), it seems likely that the “backwater” you’re referring to provided very low-cost housing for the indigent – resulting in their displacement as it’s redeveloped as you say.
Davis is nothing like either of those two cities.
“Apparently, you’re not familiar with the continuing residential sprawl on the west side of Winters.”
Do you actually know who Bob Schneider is?
I do. He’s a former developer, among other things. I don’t believe he’s involved with that anymore.
The guy is on the Sierra Club as well, and seemingly supported Alan Pryor’s “Covell Village” – reborn.
Granted, he is also associated with Tuleyome – though I’m not sure what his involvement is on there nowadays.
What makes you think I don’t know something about him, and more importantly – what difference does it make?
The guy leading the local chapter of the Sierra Club (Alan Pryor) is a vocal proponent of Covell Village (right from the start), and no one knows why. But what we DO know is that this is no way fits into the Sierra Club’s supposed mission.
That doesn’t do even remotely close to justice to his background and how much work he has done on the preservation side of things.
“What makes you think I don’t know something about him, and more importantly – what difference does it make?”
The quoted sentence which suggested he wasn’t “familiar”… It’s insulting. But you never insult people first, according to you.
Maybe so. Instead, I look at what’s actually occurring.
You’re the one who asked me if I knew something about Bob Schneider. What makes you think I insulted him, anyway? Does he deny the sprawl that’s been occurring in Winters?
For that matter, what does he think of the sprawl that’s been occurring a little south of there, on the northern outskirts of Vacaville (along the same highway as Winters)?
What does he think of the Lagoon Valley development?
I’ve seen what’s occurring, in Winters. (Granted, I stopped hiking in the hills above there a couple of years ago. I used to go quite often.)
I also saw some of what’s been occurring in West Sacramento (but again, not recently).
Bob Schneider doesn’t need “you” defending him (against what you somehow think of as a personal attack). Honestly, do you have any concept of what a personal attack actually looks like? It doesn’t seem that way, in regard to many, many articles/comments on the Vanguard.
I would hardly call the new neighborhoods west of downtown Winters “sprawl.” While they could be more compact, they are within walking distance of downtown. It’s a very typical small rural town layout. Plus that land was not agriculturally product due to its location between town and 505. But of course to you, every single house built is “sprawl” because the human race is going to dwindle to zero within the next century.
As for West Sac, it is providing denser housing (which is an example of what Village Farms and Willowgrove can build near Covell) that is serving commuters to go across the river. It’s a great example of redevelopment that serves a bigger regional need. Preserving decrepit transient housing to serve a low income population is a very poor policy approach to solving the homelessness issue. Hard to believe that you might consider yourself compassionate if that’s the best you can come up with.
I would hardly call the new neighborhoods west of downtown Winters “sprawl.”
That’s where you and I differ. It adds nothing to the existing residents of Winters, other than more costs, traffic, loss of open space, etc. Plus, this type of thing never ends.
And apparently, you and Bob are suddenly big PG&E fans, in regard to that training center (which caused yet another traffic light to be installed in that town).
You do realize, I assume – that every time ANY type of traffic control is installed, the result is less efficiency for anyone traveling along that route (both in terms of time AND energy).
As for West Sac, it is providing denser housing (which is an example of what Village Farms and Willowgrove can build near Covell) that is serving commuters to go across the river.
Not from what I’ve seen (spreading southward).
Preserving decrepit transient housing to serve a low income population is a very poor policy approach to solving the homelessness issue. Hard to believe that you might consider yourself compassionate if that’s the best you can come up with.
Right – “compassionate” folks like you apparently prefer them to live on the street, instead.
Probably worth noting that Aggie Square itself (in Sacramento) was sued by existing residents, regarding the impact it will have. Apparently, by the type of people that you and David claim to be concerned about.
Interesting article in the Reporter today:
“State Senator Christopher Cabaldon provided the keynote address for the Planning and Conservation League’s California Environmental Assembly this week at UC Davis.”
A notable quote, speaking of his record as mayor of West Sac:
Cabaldon said West Sacramento produced housing “that the city of Davis and Yolo County were supposed to be producing under RHNA (regional housing needs assessment).”
“We took virtually 100 percent of those obligations to our city, and not just as a gift, in fact not as a gift at all, but because we were trying to promote urban, transit-oriented denser development that would support itself,” Cabaldon said.
https://www.thereporter.com/2026/03/04/cabaldon-slams-california-forever-in-uc-davis-appearance/
Yes, this is what Davis needs, along with a fiscal commitment to fund the necessary effort. This will all be for naught if the City just gives lip service to this plan.