Land Use/Open Space

Very quietly on Tuesday’s meeting, the Davis City Council voted for a consent agenda item that would allow for the delay of initiation of the work by the Senior Housing Strategy Committee.  This was the committee created at the behest of Councilmember Stephen Souza that would study the issue of senior housing that was pushed forward this spring by the lobbying efforts of the Covell Partners as they seek to bring back Covell Village.

This is another example of Councilmember Stephen Souza coming up with a clever idea during the council meeting but not having throught through the implementation of the process.  The form and structure of the committee changed drastically throughout the process, but the goal was for the committee to make a recommendation to the City Council by the end of 2009.  To do that, it was scheduled to meet nine times between July 30 and November 19.

In a long and meandering meeting that began at 5 pm with a joint discussion with Woodland City Council on water, ended just before 2 am with a 3-2 vote to deliver the Wildhorse Ranch Project for a Measure J vote in November 2009.

Councilmembers Sue Greenwald and Stephen Souza repeatedly attempted to delay this discussion, in part based on the lateness of the hour and in part based on not only the complexity of the issues but also problems that they had with the project.

On Tuesday, the Davis City Council will decide whether or not to approve the 191 unit, 25.8 acre Wildhorse Ranch project and forward it to the voters for an election per Measure J requirements.

Staff recommends full approval of the project in each of its component parts. The request is to change the land use designations for the site from agriculture, where the property currently contains a horse farm, to residential.

After a lengthy period of outreach by the developers to the Wildhorse Each Neighborhood Association and other adjacent neighborhoods as well as the community at large, and working with city staff, the neighborhood association opted to oppose the project. Nevertheless, city staff believes that “this site plan configuration is acceptable, and addresses most of staff concerns expressed about previous plans.”

At Tuesday’s City Council Meeting, the Davis City Council approved by a 4-0 vote a grant to the Rancho Yolo Association for 43,900 dollars.  This follows a grant of 50,000 that was approved in April.  Councilmember Sue Greenwald abstained from this vote.

The motion approved by council was made by Councilmember Lamar Heystek and represented a compromise over the original staff recommendation which would require 10,000 dollars for a third party review of the process but come outside of the grant money.  This would come from the 43,000 but reduce the cost of the third party review to 5,000.

If the June vote by the Business and Economic Development Commission was not a strong enough message to Councilmember Stephen Souza’s proposal for a business park exemption to Measure J, the voter approved measure that gives the voters of Davis the ability to vote on proposed land use designation changes that would pave the way for development, on Wednesday, the Planning Commission unanimously voted against placing any exemptions before the Davis voters.

During the course of discussion there seemed to be no great sense to exempt a specific property for a business park proposal.  There was some concern that it would lead to an overly complicated process and a member of the public, Pam Nieberg, pointed out from the original legal advice that any exemption for a specific property could lead to a lawsuit unless all properties were considered for exemption.

Here is how the scam works.  When a homeowner tries to tender a check to pay for their monthly assessment to the homeowners association through its hired management company, the check is either not accepted or not posted to the homeowner’s account in a timely manner.  The result is a determination by management the payment is now suddenly “overdue”.  This triggers the collections process, with the homeowners “delinquency” immediately sent to collections.  Here, the money meter begins to run, racking up huge collections costs and late fees.  If the total debt owed, including all collections costs and late fees, is not paid posthaste and in toto, the homeowner’s house is held hostage with a threatened foreclosure.   The collections process is tantamount to a train rolling downhill on the tracks – almost impossible to stop once begun.

It was nearly a month ago that the Business and Economic Development Commission (BEDC) considered whether Measure J should have a business park exemption during their vote to place a renewal on the ballot that would sunset in 2020.  At that time, the BEDC did not feel comfortable with the vague lack of direction that the council provided them.  They would vote by a 7 to 1 vote to recommend no exemption at this point in time.  The one dissenting vote actually wanted the qualifier “at this point in time” removed.

The BEDC was reluctant to permanently recommend against this consideration based on the notion that they are in the midst of receiving a staff report on the city’s business park land needs.  Depending on the outcome of that study, they might wish to revisit the issue should the study show the definitive and immediate need for a business park.

A bare quorum of the Davis Planning Commission was on hand on Wednesday evening in Davis, but they agreed to approve the staff report unanimously with a 4-0 vote on all measures except the Final EIR which was inexplicably only received from city staff on Monday.  Commissioner Ananya Choudhuri voted against approving the Final EIR due to her not reading it (she probably should have abstained rather than voted no, but that’s largely a moot point).

The actions taken by the Planning Commission on Wednesday were fivefold.  First, they certified the Final EIR for the Wildhorse Ranch proposal, including findings of fact, statement of overriding considerations, and mitigation monitoring plan in the staff report.  Second, they approved the General Plan Amendment Resolution that establishes the land use designations for the Wildhorse Ranch.  Third they introduced the ordinance that rezones and establishes the use and development standards for the Wildhorse Ranch site.  Fourth, they approved the Affordable Housing Plan.  And finally they introduced the ordinance to approve the Development Agreement between the City and the Developer, Parlin Whildhorse Ranch.  Again, this item was approved as received as it was not complete at the time of the meeting.

After three years of sitting vacant, the West Lake Shopping center will have a new grocery store by November, in time for Thanksgiving according to a deal announced at Davis City Council.  This deal was agreed to by all parties involved including the current owners, the prospective grocers, the neighbors, and approved by city staff and city council. 

DeLano’s Markets is coming to West Lake.  The talks had been on and off for much of the last six months.  The deal at one point appeared dead when the owners pulled the financing, however due to the persistence of DANG (Davis Advocates for Neighborhood Groceries), city staff kept the pressure on the owners to put something together.  Those talks had heated up for the past month and they made steady progress until last week when the Vanguard announced the two sides were close to an agreement.

Back in January the issue of whether there should be a woodburning ban became a topic of tremendous controversy.  On the one side were some environmentalists and some health advocates concerned with both the impact of wood burning on the environment as well as health implications.  On the other side were citizens who, for a variety of reasons, use wood during the few cold months of the year to heat their homes and provide themselves with some sort of aesthetic enjoyment.

The council in January decided to punt after the Natural Resource Commission recommended an ordinance that would ban woodburning.  Given the time of year and the fact that it was the end of the burning season, it made some sense to defer a decision in this case.  The council will now hear the issue once again and perhaps make some sort of determination.

In a letter dated July 1, 2009, the city received a sustainability proposal from the Wildhorse Ranch developer and the project’s energy conservation consultants that will put the city of Davis back on the map in terms of environmental sustainability and innovative developments.  The proposed Wildhorse Ranch development would achieve a 90% reduction in green house gas (GHG) emissions.  A typical single family home will create around 5.5 metrics tons per year of GHG emissions.  This proposal would reduce that number by 4.95 metric tons per residence to .55 metric tons per residence.

In April, the Davis City Council passed a resolution recommending GHG reduction thresholds and standards for new residential housing projects.  It set as its initial goal a 2.4 metric ton reduction per residence, or a 44% reduction of GHG emission for new homes.  This project more than doubles the city’s goals.

The Vanguard has learned from sources close to the situation that a deal is close that would bring a Grocery Store to West Lake after the shopping center has been absent a grocer for over three years since Food Fair closed in May of 2006.

The Vanguard had previously reported the deal between the Delanos Grocery Store Chain and the owners of Westlake to be dead after the owners pulled their financial offer to put up the capital necessary to re-fixturize the interior of the store that the owners themselves gutted following the closure of Food Fair.

A letter sent on Monday June 22 shows that the city is continuing to move forward with attempting to constitute a committee to make recommendations related to senior housing in Davis.  The schedule is to make recommendations to the City Council by the end of 2009.

This particular letter was sent to the Yolo County Commission on Aging and Adult Services.  It appears from the letter that the constitution of the committee has been altered since its inception.

Two weeks ago the Davis City Council heard from the neighbors and developers on the proposed project at Chiles Ranch.  The infill project has triggered strong opposition from neighbors as they believe the agreement they reached with the developers in the form of an MOU has been violated.  At that meeting, City Attorney Harriet Steiner informed the council that they are not bound by the MOU signed between the developers and the neighbors.  However, council by a 5-0 vote agreed to holdover the issue to see if the developers and neighbors could reach a compromise.

There are four key issues in question.  First is the total number of units.  That number was agreed to as 107 units in an MOU signed in June of 2008.  However, city staff has recommended 21 second units (Granny flats).  The neighbors have argued that that constitutes an additional 21 units on the site, pushing the total number of units to 128, which violated their agreement with the developer and greatly increases density.  The developer has been willing to compromise at 10 units.  However, the neighbors continue to argue that they already signed an agreement for zero additional units, and thus they should not have to come off that number.

There has been a lot of discussion following the story on the Business Park Study project.  Much of that has focused on the issue of Cannery Park and the implications for what should happen with that project.  While I understand that focus, I think there is a big looming issue that goes beyond Cannery Park.

That is the issue of 215 acres of business park build out over a 25 year period.  Granted that is a long period of time, but the issue itself forces a discussion of peripheral development and building on farmland.  The city has only 140 acres of potential business park with Cannery included in the mix.  That means even considering Cannery the city is looking at 75 acres of development on agricultural land.

On June 22, the NRC received testimony from Dr. Tom Cahill on the highly anticipated Wood Smoke Study he did in Davis last winter. Vanguard readers may recall that a decision by the City Council on the then proposed wood burning restrictions recommended by the NRC last November was deferred at the Council meeting on January 6 of this year. The basis for the decision was to allow the wood smoke study proposed by Dr. Cahill and staff to be completed and the results reviewed by the NRC.

Lost in the fray of developer driven project priorities is the fact that it makes very little sense to have a discussion of senior housing based on a such a narrow segment of our community.

Let me back up here for a moment.  Last week, it was determined by a 3-2 vote at the council meeting with the usual suspects supporting it and Councilmembers Lamar Heystek and Sue Greenwald opposing, that there would be some sort of community based discussion on senior housing needs.

The Vanguard has received a letter sent to City Council, City Staff, and the Senior Citizens Commission complaining about comments made by Stephen Hayes, a Senior Citizens Commission member at the June 2, 2009 Davis City Council meeting.  His offense?  Speaking out against the proposed senior citizens development.

The individual writes:

Council last night had a series of dizzying substitute motions during the course what should have been a fairly routine discussion on the renewal of Measure J.  As a result, the council might have passed the renewal of Measure J–they appear to have–or they might have created a whole new monster that will complicate the process of simple renewal.

A couple of dozen citizens came out on Tuesday night, all but one in support of the renewal of Measure J with no sunset and no exemptions.  The one exception was the owner of the 43-acre Signature property just east of Harper Junior High and south of the Mace Curve.  He argued for the inclusion of his property as an exemption to Measure J.