Land Use/Open Space

Despite Cost Cutting Measures City Staff Still Classifies Costs as “Daunting” –

Today we see an interesting article in the Davis Enterprise, which analyzes the growth issue.  You remember the growth issue–the issue that used to be the most important issue facing the city of Davis.  That was in the days before the bottom fell out of the housing market and the economy collapsed forcing the city to finally reckon with the issue of the budget and city salaries.  Or at least those of us observing the city to try to force them to reckon with it even as they appear to be unusually stubborn.

The most important thing that we learn from the Enterprise article probably has little to do with its primary intent.  It shows us the widening gap now between the thinking of Mayor Pro Tem Don Saylor and now even city staff.  Already we have seen Mr. Saylor has moved far afield from the of his colleagues on the council.  He was the only one to support without qualification the mixed-use project at Cannery Park.  He was the only one to express lament at the exit of Cannery.  And he was the only one to push for immediately doing a new and/ or updated General Plan.

IPM Coordinator Calls For Cessation of Usage

Neighbors Have Long Battled Friend of Mayor Pro Tem To Abate Noise From Montessori Day Care Center

Westlake Plaza

In an interview with the Vanguard, the Davis Advocates for Neighborhood Groceries (DANG) say they thought they had a deal. Consultants for Farrokh Hosseinyoun, the majority owner of the Westlake Plaza Shopping Center on Lake Boulevard in West Davis had found a suitor for the Westlake Plaza’s empty grocery store spot.

Enter the Delano Family, owners of eight Bay Area Grocery stores bearing the same name. They operate Delano’s Markets in San Francisco, Mill Valley, Tiburon, Fairfax and Novato, many of them very upscale in appearance. Adding to the intrigue is the versatility of their product and the vast experience of the Delanos in the grocery business and their genuine interest in coming to Davis and Westlake Plaza.

City of Davis

by Steve Tracy
This past Tuesday evening the City Council considered changes to the design of the 5th/Russell corridor, between A and L Streets. Opportunities to put missing bike lanes on the street and deal with ongoing safety issues have been missed in the past. We hope this time the community can learn from the experience in other similar situations, set aside fear and emotion, and support a decision to create a safer street that will serve everyone better.

In February of 2005, the timing of the traffic signals was modified at the intersections where F and G Streets meet 5th Street. The new timing, called “split-phase” in traffic engineer vernacular, allows only one direction of traffic on 5th Street (eastbound or westbound) to flow at a time.

General Plan

The Davis City Council last night began to embark upon their discussion of how the General Plan update process should proceed. There was considerable discussion as to whether it should even go forward at this point given the current economic situation, given the costs of proceeding, and given the uncertainty of our times.

The consistent question that arises and is never really answered by those councilmembers who support going forward with an update is why we need to do so now, rather than take the Housing Element that has already been adopted and perhaps modifying the plan with more modern and general principles of sustainability.

General Plan

On Tuesday night, the Davis City Council will start take steps towards developing a plan of attack for the next General Plan Update. According to the staff report:

A General Plan update would potentially address all of the Council goal categories of: Infrastructure; Fiscal stability; Downtown Davis; Housing; Sustainability; Safety and Health; Organizational Strength; Civic Engagement; and Long-Term Visioning.

City of Davis

As we reported on Saturday, the City Attorney Harriet Steiner suggested that she erred in her assessment that Councilmember Sue Greenwald was not conflicted out of a vote cast on November 4, 2008 against a redesign of the 233 B Street property. Therefore the city staff determined that the applicant could request a rehearing without going through the normal reconsideration process.

The council will meet at a later point to modify and correct conflict of interest policies. We have discussed this at length already.

City of Davis

The city-county two by two met on Friday at the Davis County Offices for the Board of Supervisors. The two by two is comprised of two members of the Davis City Council, Mayor Ruth Asmundson and Mayor Pro Tem Don Saylor, and two members of the County Board of Superivisors, the two Davis representatives, Helen Thomson and Jim Provenza.

One item that was discussed was the issue of the Frontier Chemical Superfund Site and the recent discovery of TCP that has been covered extensively not only on this blog but in this community.

Will Council have to revisit November Vote on B Street Project Based on FIVE Feet? On November…

The Senior Citizens Commission met on Thursday. Along with the Social Services Commission they have been working…

On Monday, the Vanguard ran an article reporting on a new discovery of TCP, at a level…