Woodland Webinar: A Dive into the Woodland Research and Tech Specific Plan

By Linh NguyenFebruary 15, 202112 comments

By Pavan Potti 

WOODLAND, CA — On Feb. 11, Woodland city manager Ken Hiatt and and Business Development Liaison Erika Bumgardener detailed the background of the Woodland Research and Tech Specific plan, its development through the years, and where it stands today.

The plan’s main goal is to build a new technology hub and residential area for the city of Woodland. The 350-acre park would become an employment center and housing complex for growing institutions within the Sacramento area.

The webinar began by providing a timeline of the plan’s implementation. According to Hiatt, the city council approved the specific plan back in June 2017. In Oct. 2017, the city council saw a draft of a land use plan. An update on the project was given during the Spring Lake Open House in Sep. 2019. 

Hiatt stated that from Nov. 2017 to the present, there has been solid on-going preparation of a specific plan draft as well as technical and environmental studies to inform design and infrastructure planning. 

He also added how the specific plan has called for active outreach through email, social media, mailers, and newsletters to over 800 local businesses, as well as multiple stakeholder presentations to raise awareness of the project and spread the word to business about future opportunities there. 

Bumgardner expressed how the general plan was to diversify jobs and careers, open up opportunities for companies to grow, as well as promote economic development. 

She further elaborated that the guiding principles for the specific plan consist of innovation, technology capture and retention, business partnership, sustainability and resilience, connectivity and mobility and health in the community.

Bumgardner also stated that the goal is to strive for zero net energy consumption as outlined in the city’s Climate Action Plan. 

Hiatt concluded by providing future plans for the group, saying that the January-March period of this year would be dedicated to community and stakeholder outreach with a presentation given to the Parks and Recreation Commission in March. In April, a city council check-in would occur followed by a publication of the proposed plan amendments. June would consist of final recommendations on the plan.

Pavan is a third year student studying Economics from Fremont, California.

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Land Use/Open Space Vanguard at UC Davis Yolo County

12 comments

  1. Though short on details, it’s good to see an acknowledgement (the first one ever, as I recall on here) of this development.  Normally, it’s just a claim regarding “shortage” of regional space.

    As previously discussed on here, this is a reconfiguration and relocation of the proposal which failed in Davis, before it even reached voters.

    There still has been no announced commercial tenants, that I’m aware of.  But, there will be 1,600 housing units.

    Too bad that Woodland doesn’t have Measure D, though I’m pretty sure that voters in Woodland would approve it regardless.

    2. They certainly got close enough in terms of building a website (which is still operating), which includes significant site plans.

      I understand that it includes the same site that WDAAC/Bretton Woods will now occupy, instead.

      Hey – do you suppose that they haven’t given up, and will “blend together” those two developments?  (With a built-in “senior workforce”?)  🙂

      http://davisinnovationcenter.org/

    3. A project manager for a proposed innovation center in Davis said the project is on hold, though not officially abandoned.

      John Hodgson, who also was the architect on the project with Hines and SKS Development, said the partners concluded the Davis Innovation Center couldn’t pass a necessary citywide vote.

      “We’re disappointed,” Hodgson said, though he noted city staff and leadership had been very supportive of the idea. “We made a political calculus.”

      The Davis Innovation Center would be 4 million square feet of commercial space, most of it office, research-and-design and light industrial. That project would be on about 208 acres northeast of the existing city.

      City of Davis officials have pushed for new innovation centers to keep companies and jobs from fleeing the city for cheaper rents and available space elsewhere. But Measure R, which city voters enacted in the early 2000s, requires voter approval for projects either annexing new property to the city or redeveloping ag land within the city.

      Hodgson said city residents turned back two other proposals in previous Measure R elections, and his group feared the same fate.

      https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2015/05/21/one-proposed-davis-business-park-on-hold.html

      1. the partners concluded the Davis Innovation Center couldn’t pass a necessary citywide vote.

        I’m sure they look back and consider they made the right decision for themselves, and November only solidified that belief.

    4. And some 5-6 years later (and after the move to Woodland), still no announced commercial tenants.

      But hey, at least it will now (also) include 1,600 housing units!

      One might cynically conclude that this demonstrates what the state of the market actually is, in terms of “penciling out”. There does not appear to be sufficient commercial demand, on its own.

    5. The proposal never got far enough to “fail” in Davis

      Say what?  I went to several meetings on the proposal.  It disappeared from Davis.  That’s a fail.

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