By E. Roberts Musser (private citizen) –
By E. Roberts Musser (private citizen) – However, here is the curious thing. The city’s staff report to the Davis Senior Citizens Commission states “Staff is providing project details on the proposed Carlton Senior Assisted Living Care Facility proposal for informational purposes. Staff is soliciting comments from the Commission regarding the proposed use, but is not recommending any formal action be taken by the Commission on this item. The project will be reviewed at public hearings before the Planning Commission on Dec. 16, 2009 and the City Council on Jan. 12, 2010.” Nowhere in the city staff report to the commission does it state opposition to this project. Rather it sounds as if city staff is soliciting the Senior Citizens Commission’s input for consideration before any decision is made.
The Davis Senior Citizens Commission opted to make sure its voice was heard, and passed the following three motions to be forwarded to the Planning Commission and City Council:
- The Davis Senior Citizens Commission recommends the Senior Housing Guidelines [it promulgated] be used in evaluating this project.
- Preliminary evaluation of documents provided by city staff and the developer indicate this project would essentially conform to the major elements of the Senior Housing Guidelines.
- The Davis Senior Citizens Commission respectfully disagrees that the proposed land use is incompatible. Surrounding facilities have set a precedent of residential use near that location with Eleanor Roosevelt Circle [senior housing facility] and student housing already in place.
What follows is the reasoning of city staff and commissioner response. City staff indicated both the Davis Police Department (DPD) and Davis Waste Removal (DWR) are opposed to the placement of this assisted living facility because they are afraid their own activities would be incompatible with such a residential facility. DWR at some time may have to expand its operations on site, which may create additional noise and odor. The DPD may have to raise its noise level if it, too, decides to do the same.
Commissioners and City Council Liaison Sue Greenwald questioned the premise of such objections. Any increase in noise and odors would be an incompatible use with already existing residential facilities nearby, such as Eleanor Roosevelt Circle, a senior housing complex, and student housing. Cathy Camacho then did an about-face, claiming it wasn’t an odor or noise issue. Commissioners then asked specifically what the problem was. When no sensible answer was forthcoming, commissioners asked a different question. Was it that DPD and DWR wanted the lot to remain vacant in perpetuity, just in case they might expand operations someday? In which case, commissioners pointed out the city should purchase the property in all fairness to the owner.
Ms. Camacho insisted there was no interest in purchasing the property by either DPD and DWR for expansion. Apparently both have enough onsite acreage for that eventuality. So the only objection Cathy Camacho could come up with is that offices needed to go into that space, not any type of residential or public institutional use. When asked why offices are that much dissimilar from residential or public institutional use, Ms. Camacho could only answer “because they are different”. Yet ultimately she couldn’t really give a definitive example that would explain city staff’s extremely negative position on the project.
Commissioners also pointed out if Carlton Plaza Davis were built, it would have an on-site bus shuttle. The Carlton developer has agreed that ERC could possibly share. Currently, ERC has no such transportation service. The two facilities could partner for social activities as well. As it turns out, another senior community is located directly across the street, Rancho Yolo Senior Mobile Home Park. A very nice senior enclave could be coordinated, which would be to the benefit of all concerned. Furthermore, the proposed Carlton Plaza Davis facility will provide a dementia unit, something Davis currently does not have.
City staff’s resistance to this project is very perplexing, and makes no sense at present. Having heard their opposition, perhaps they will be better able to bolster their position and articulate a more reasoned argument. Nevertheless, I find it troubling that the city staff report indicates 1) a request for input, when in fact city staff has already made up its mind; 2) couching the report as informational only, blatantly discouraging commission action. The Davis Senior Citizens Commission has faced this sort of struggle before, where its participation is not really welcome by the city, but rather the Commission is being asked to rubber stamp an already formulated opinion.
During the Covell Village fiasco, there was an attempt to coerce the Davis Senior Citizens Commission into approving the project, before commissioners really had a chance to properly evaluate the proposed development. When the Davis Senior Citizens Commission was slated for elimination, there was an ugly and concerted effort by city staff to prevent the Commission from weighing in on the issue at all. Yet the Social Services Commission had been allowed to pass a motion in support of eradicating the Senior Citizens Commission. Would the Social Services Commission have been so sanguine about doing away with their own commission?
As David Greenwald has pointed out so many times before, it is the process, or lack thereof that is troubling. If commissions are to advise the City Council, at what point are they allowed to weigh in on potential development projects? Or is city staff driving the process, merely using commissions as cover and/or a rubber stamp for their arbitrary decisions or hidden agendas? My hope is that our commission’s move has set a new precedent, in which appropriate commissions are allowed to give opinions on projects at their inception, rather than after the proposals are essentially a done deal. I would encourage other commissions to do the same.
[quote]Commissioners also pointed out if Carlton Plaza Davis were built, it would have an on-site bus shuttle. The Carlton developer has agreed that ERC could [u]possibly[/u] share. Currently, ERC has no such transportation service. The two facilities could partner for social activities as well.[/quote] That would be a huge benefit. It might make sense to require a Carlton to develop a pact with the ERC for shuttle service as a condition of development. One of the problems of the ERC is that it’s not large enough by itself to have benefits, like its own shuttle bus, which come with economies of scale. But in that location, a shuttle bus would be a great benefit for trips to shopping centers, downtown and medical facilities in Davis. [quote] As it turns out, another senior community is located [b]directly[/b] across the street, Rancho Yolo Senior Mobile Home Park. [/quote] That’s misleading. Rancho Yolo backs up to 5th Street (very near by), but it has no access to 5th Street (AFAIK). So while they are close as the crow flies, it’s actually a one mile drive from Cantrill to Quarter Circle, the nearest Rancho Yolo street.
One other positive consideration of Carlton Senior Living is that it is a for-profit corporation. ([url]http://www.alfa.org/images/alfa/PDFs/2008_Largest_Providers_ALE_magazine.pdf[/url]). As such, Carlton will pay property taxes. Contrast that with the URC, which, while largely providing housing for middle and higher income seniors, is chartered as a non-profit and pays no property tax (and thus presumably harms the city’s finances a bit).
“That’s misleading. Rancho Yolo backs up to 5th Street (very near by), but it has no access to 5th Street (AFAIK). So while they are close as the crow flies, it’s actually a one mile drive from Cantrill to Quarter Circle, the nearest Rancho Yolo street.”
For the purposes of noise, odor, sharing social activities, walking distance, Rancho Yolo is essentially right across the street from the proposed Carlton Plaza Davis. Thus ERC, Rancho Yolo and the proposed Carlton Plaza Davis could make a very nice coordinated partnership, being nearby each other on the east end of town near the DPD.