Davis, CA – The Village Farms Project comes back before the Davis City Council on Tuesday. The biggest piece of news is that the project is now expected to come before the voters in November 2025 rather than March.
The applicant submitted the Village Farms Davis project application in April of 2023.
In October 2023, the City Council awarded the contract for the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Village Farms Davis proposal to Raney Planning & Management, Inc.
Through the analyses provided by various technical reports, the original project has been revised somewhat to accommodate a Biological Resource Assessment prepared for the project which identified the habitat resource area as “an alkali playa” or a “type of jurisdictional wetland.”
According to staff, “With that information, the applicant determined that the previously conceptualized biological resource avoidance alternative would be the project that they wished to bring forward and seek approval of.”
The proposed project consisted of a mixed-use development community, with a total of 1,800 dwelling units, comprised of both affordable and market-rate single- and multi-family residences, across various residential neighborhoods.
Staff notes, “In general, the revised proposed project is very similar to the original project” with the same number of units.
The most significant change to the revised project is “the enlargement of the Urban Agricultural Transition Area where the groundwater recharge facility was originally proposed.”
Staff notes, “To offset the shift of 47 acres of developed land to habitat preservation, while retaining the same 1,800-unit count, the BRPA Equal Weight alternative results in densification of the remaining residential areas.”
Staff notes that this includes a net increase of 360 missing middle units, an increase to 20% affordable units (a net increase of 60 affordable units), and an adjustment to right size the Down Payment Assistance Homes unit count “to achieve a higher level of affordability impact with a meaningful down payment assistance dollar amount for each of the 90 units, while still balancing the overall project financial feasibility in light of the above noted adjustments.”
An Administrative Draft EIR is due on November 19. Staff will provide council and the community on update on this at the council meeting.
The Draft EIR is now expected to be released in early 2025, and a Planning Commission public meeting will be held during the public review period to accept public comments. The final EIR will be released in Spring 2025.
That pushes back the timeline:
Preparation of Final EIR (including response to comments) – by May, 2025
- Commissions review and recommendations to City Council – February-May, 2025
- Planning Commission public hearing and recommendations to City Council – late May/early June, 2025
- City Council public hearing – June 17, 2025
- Ballot Measure – November, 2025
