DAVIS, Calif. — Davis will take another step toward determining where and how the city will grow over the next quarter-century Wednesday, when members of several city commissions convene to continue reviewing the Draft Preferred Land Use Map for the Davis 2050 General Plan Update.
The General Plan Committee meeting, a joint meeting of council-appointed members from select city commissions, will be held Wednesday, Aug. 12, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Community Chambers at 23 Russell Blvd.
The discussion continues the committee’s July 22 review of the Draft Preferred Land Use Map, moving the city closer to decisions that could determine how much housing Davis permits, where additional density is concentrated, whether existing neighborhoods accommodate more homes and how peripheral growth fits into the city’s long-term strategy.
Those decisions come as housing has emerged as one of the central issues in the General Plan process. At an April community workshop attended by more than 150 people, the city introduced preliminary land-use concepts intended to explore how Davis could meet future housing and employment needs through 2050.
The General Plan ultimately establishes the framework governing how land can be used and how much development can occur. The city’s land-use materials explain that residential density determines how many homes may be constructed per acre, while development intensity for commercial and mixed-use properties governs the amount of building space allowed relative to parcel size.
That makes the preferred land-use map more than an abstract planning exercise. It could establish the regulatory foundation for thousands of future homes while determining whether Davis primarily accommodates growth through infill, redevelopment, neighborhood upzoning, transit-oriented development, peripheral expansion or some combination of those approaches.
The city initially presented three concepts for growth within existing city limits.
Concept 1, Concentrated Growth, focused development in selected locations including Downtown, opportunity sites, employment areas, residential neighborhoods and Davis Joint Unified School District properties.
Concept 2, Dispersed Infill, spreading potential land-use changes more broadly throughout Davis, including Downtown, transit-adjacent areas, employment properties and existing low-density residential neighborhoods.
Concept 3, Employment Focus, emphasized jobs and commercial space by intensifying Downtown and employment areas while providing targeted opportunities for additional housing. The city also examined development outside existing boundaries, including possible housing and employment hubs, open-space preservation, transportation connections and an urban limit line.
The city has stressed that the concepts were not intended to be selected intact. Its land-use materials describe them as preliminary alternatives designed to allow residents to compare trade-offs and shape a preferred approach, noting that they could be discussed, combined and revised.
Housing feedback collected during the process indicates considerable support among participating residents for changing existing land-use rules rather than maintaining the status quo.
In the city’s second General Plan community survey, 35% of respondents supported modestly increasing the amount of housing permitted across all residential neighborhoods, the largest share among the specific housing concepts offered.
Another 15% supported more intensive increases in selected residential neighborhoods, while 13% supported intensifying housing on selected school district properties and permitting mixed-use development on selected faith-based properties.
Only 5% selected maintaining the existing General Plan without changes, while 11% selected annexing new residential areas outside current city limits. Another 21% provided other responses.
The open-ended responses showed that many participants did not view those approaches as mutually exclusive.
According to the city’s summary, respondents expressed interest in combining infill, increased density, housing along transit corridors, redevelopment of public or faith-based properties and, in some cases, planned annexation. Affordable housing and housing opportunities for families, students, young adults and lower-income residents also emerged as recurring concerns.
One respondent wrote, “All options should be implemented. We need more housing, period.”
Another called for the city to “Combine the plans.”
A third wrote, “A combination of strategies should be used to maximize housing.”
The results also point toward significant interest in concentrating development around transit and existing commercial areas.
When respondents were asked what kind of new development should be prioritized in neighborhood centers and along transit corridors such as Fifth Street, 74% selected mixed-use development combining jobs, housing, retail and services.
Just 10% selected multifamily housing alone, 5% selected employment uses alone and 2% selected retail and services alone.
Downtown also emerged as a potential location for considerably more development.
In the survey, 47% supported both expanding the Downtown boundary and increasing allowable building heights and densities. Another 39% supported increasing heights and densities within the existing Downtown footprint, while only 5% favored leaving the existing Specific Plan unchanged.
The workshop produced similar signals. Participants reviewing potential building heights along transit corridors gave 24 votes to seven- or eight-story buildings, 22 votes to five- or six-story buildings and six votes to four-story buildings.
Participants were more divided over whether housing developments in neighborhood centers and transit corridors should be required to retain commercial space.
Twenty-three workshop participants supported allowing housing projects to move forward without required commercial space across all such locations, while 20 said projects should include both housing and commercial space.
No participants selected either opposition to residential projects in those locations or a preference that new housing instead be located outside city limits.
The question of peripheral growth nevertheless remains part of the General Plan discussion.
Under the city’s planning framework, Davis controls land use within its boundaries and has limited pre-zoning authority within its Sphere of Influence. Land outside the city must first be included within the Sphere of Influence before going through annexation, while Yolo County’s Local Agency Formation Commission determines changes to that sphere.
Workshop participants raised transportation, environmental and community-design concerns about potential outward growth. Suggestions included considering land near Interstate 80 in Solano County, prioritizing transportation corridors, protecting wildlife areas and ensuring new housing developments contain community centers, transit connections, workplaces and open space.
The General Plan process also intersects with Davis’ longstanding political debate over Measure J/R/D, which requires voter approval for many proposals involving conversion of agricultural land to urban development.
Earlier community engagement identified continued discussion over Measure J/R/D alongside affordable housing, infrastructure, employment and city services as major themes.
At the same time, the city’s General Plan outreach has identified slowing housing growth, limited areas available for new development inside city limits, a jobs-housing imbalance, economic development needs and structural city budget challenges as conditions confronting Davis.
Those pressures place greater significance on decisions about existing residential neighborhoods and infill. Increasing allowable density within existing neighborhoods could create additional housing capacity without annexing agricultural land, but it would also represent a substantial change to decades-old land-use patterns in some parts of Davis.
One workshop participant framed the housing trade-off starkly: “You are too concerned with ‘ruining someone’s view’ by building over a field or making buildings taller. Why is someone’s ‘view’ more important than sheltering my children?”
Others favored combining strategies rather than forcing a choice between infill and expansion.
“The concepts should be merged!” another participant wrote. “The upzoning of Concept One should be combined with the mixed-use of Concept Two and the employment growth of Concept Three.”
Another participant called for “more density and variety of housing and business types in all parts, with more mixed-use neighborhoods and developments,” while tying that growth to improvements in bicycle infrastructure, walkability and transit.
The community survey itself carries limitations. The city received 216 responses, but participation was voluntary and open to anyone who accessed the survey.
The city cautioned that the results provide insight into engaged community members but should not be interpreted as statistically representative of Davis as a whole.
That distinction makes the next stage of public review particularly important as the city moves from broad conceptual alternatives toward an actual preferred land-use map.
The city describes the General Plan as Davis’ long-term roadmap for growth and change, guiding decisions involving housing, land use, transportation, mobility, environmental stewardship and community character.
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