By Maggie and Don Sherman
On behalf of the many Davis and Yolo County citizens appalled at the outrageous proposal an out-of-state billion-dollar development corporation has made to the City of Davis, we want to express our appreciation for your courteous and concerned reaction to our effort prevent it.
The enormous project includes multiple 5-story buildings with 244 apartments and 803 bedrooms that will house more than 1,000 students. This link takes you to the City Of Davis Website that has the proposed Sterling Apartment Project description and a consultant’s report, entitled “Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration.” The report clearly understates the project’s environmental impacts.
While the developer, along with their attorneys and consultants had a year or more to prepare their Mitigated Negative Declaration, our citizens committee met their challenge in the scant month allowed and filed these comments with the City, in which we carefully specifically identify and describe the numerous flaws in the developer’s and their hired hand’s environmental analysis. We compressed our submission to under 12 pages, for which we hope you can find a few minutes. We hope you will agree, while time is short, citizens of Yolo County and the City of Davis must bring a halt to this madly rushing process, referred to in our Vanguard editorial, In Davis, a Runaway Train, a Mad Rush to Ruin.
If you see merit in our opposition, please help us by bringing it to the attention of anyone you feel needs to know of the danger. Any suggestions are more than welcome. We need help! Our sincere thanks for your consideration.
Question, why can’t UCD designate some of their land for this corporation to purchase and build these apartments? They would be closer to campus and resolve this dispute.
Interesting idea BP.
For the record the distance from the Families First drive way to the UCD MU is 1.71 miles and the distance from the square in West Village to the UCD MU is 1.63 miles. Any new land that UCD might sell to an outside party would probably be further away from the MU than West Village is.
Didn’t know, but that said wouldn’t the commute still be easier and cause less congestion from West Village instead of funneling students through the heart of the city?
What congestion? Classes don’t all start at the same time, so it isn’t like all 1000 students will be commuting to campus at the same instant. Their trips will be spread throughout the day. Many will ride Unitrans – which is already traversing the downtown – and the rest will mostly be on bikes, traveling different routes depending on where they are headed. There will be no noticeable ‘congestion’ caused by these additional residents.
Mark wrote:
> There will be no noticeable ‘congestion’ caused by these additional residents.
I bet less than 1% of (non-disabled) students that live within 2 miles of campus drive to school on a regular basis.
The Campus Travel Survey has data about how people travel to and from campus, and from where. They do the survey each year.
Mark… give it up… you’re completely correct, and it is verifiable… there are those who have other agendas that will never ‘hear’ your words… they’re throwing over-cooked spaghetti at the walls to see what will stick… can’t wait for the question from them, “how many children must die?”
You know what Hpierce, I really don’t care if this project gets built or not. It just seemed like it might be a good solution to have it built on campus since the UC system has stated that they want to help with housing and at the same time alleviating the concerns of people who live close to the proposed site. I just floated an idea.
They should do that, too. We need thousands of beds.
BP said . . . “wouldn’t the commute still be easier and cause less congestion from West Village instead of funneling students through the heart of the city?”
Not if they are using the already existing capabilities of UNITRANS. You may be right for the students who ride bicycles. I believe no student in his/her right mind will drive a car to class from either location.
BP said . . . “You know what Hpierce, I really don’t care if this project gets built or not. It just seemed like it might be a good solution to have it built on campus since the UC system has stated that they want to help with housing and at the same time alleviating the concerns of people who live close to the proposed site. I just floated an idea.”
And I for one am glad you did. Open, transparent dialogue about the issues is good for us all.
These folks should prepare for a referendum on this issue. If the City cared about the neighbors or good planning, they would have pursued BP’s suggestion.
Thanks for posting this article. Rancho Yolo residents are not alone, regarding these concerns.
Farmer’s to the left of me, NIMBY’s to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
Showing your age, Frankly… I loved it!
for the younger set… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DohRa9lsx0Q
Listen carefully to the lyrics… explains a lot…
When the interest rates you charge get too high, do they call your business Stealers Wheel?
Frankly wrote:
> Farmer’s to the left of me, NIMBY’s to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
Looking at the photo above Sterling is “in the middle” of two medium size apartment complexes and Rancho Yolo is the “monster” size complex.
True – “monster” is a relative term… often an actual relative.
So, not a reference to Steppenwolf’s Monster?