Land Use/Open Space

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.

The issue of the renewal of Measure J was at one point expected to be rather controversial.  However at least looking at the staff report, that may not be the case.

In 2000, Measure J was passed by the voters of Davis by a 53.6% yes vote giving the citizens the right to vote and determine whether land can be re-designated from Agriculture or Open Space to any urban usage.  The measure however, sunsets at the end of 2010 and must be reconsidered by the voters.

Back on April 1, the Vanguard visited the Westlake site and took photos of possible code violations.  The Vanguard has now learned that following those photos, the city of Davis issued a notice of Violation to the property owners on April 9, 2009.

In particular, two items were cited, the loading dock “filled with earth” and a cracked window that had been boarded over.

On November 3, 2005, literally four days before the 2005 election that would see Measure X, the Measure J vote that Davis voters would overwhelming vote down by a 60-40 margin, an article ran in the Davis Enterprise, whereby the No on Measure X campaign complained among other things that the Covell Village Company and their “Smart Planning – Yes on X” Campaign had failed to disclose the true cost of more than a dozen glossy campaign mailers sent to thousands of Davis voters as well as other campaign expenses such as campaign worker salaries.

The Vanguard has now learned over three and a half years later that there was significant merit to that complaint. On April 3, 2008 three amended statements  using the Fair Political Practice Commission (FPPC) California Form 460 were filed with the Davis City Clerk, two and a half years after the termination of campaign papers were filed on January 31, 2006 claiming a zero balance and a final expenditure of $385,274.75 for the campaign that lasted from July 28, 2005 until December 31, 2005.

It was a packed house Tuesday evening before the Davis City Council as dozens of people on both sides of the issue came to speak and listen to a discussion on development.

Accusations flew back and forth as even Covell Village developers John Whitcombe and Bill Streng came forward to speak.

Last year the Vanguard foiled a plan by the Covell Village developers to rig a community meeting by the Housing Element Steering Committee (HESC) that sought input from the community about its proposed sites for development by 2013.  At that time, the group that brought us Covell Village and the 60% defeat of Measure X in 2005, sent out talking points with explicit instructions on how to fill out the community feedback forms to move Covell Village from a site not being considered for development by 2013 to a priority.

However, the Vanguard with the help of concerned community members intercepted the email and the plot was largely foiled.

When the new Target was set to be placed on the ballot, the city went to great pains to assure existing neighborhood grocery stores that Target would not be a new competitor.  Indeed Target specifically was forbidden from containing more than 20% food services in a specific effort to avoid competition either with the South Davis Nugget Market or the nearby East Manor Shopping Center which is now bare.

However, in the Sacramento Bee yesterday, the article suggests a new emphasis on food sections at the Davis Target.

Introduction

We are polluting the world’s oceans with petroleum based materials that take hundreds to thousands of years to decompose.  Sixty to eighty percent of marine debris overall and up to ninety percent of floating debris is plastic.  In at least one area in the Pacific, plastic debris outweighs plankton by a factor of six. This debris is carried across the globe by ocean currents, and, as it is broken down by the sun, it joins the huge masses of plastic particles in our oceans that threaten marine wildlife.  According to the California Coastal Commission, more than 1 million sea birds, 100,000 marine mammals, including filter feeding whales, and countless fish are killed annually in the north Pacific alone from ingesting or becoming entangled in marine debris.  Furthermore, due to their chemical composition, plastic particles can accumulate toxins on their surface which then poison the animals exposed to them.

The Davis City Council on Tuesday night heard a presentation from Dr. Ed Schroeder and Dr. George Tchobanoglous that has the potential to change the way we proceed on the water project, but only if the council majority will let it.  That became more clear after their presentation was over and the council proceeded to approve by a 3-2 vote a resolution authorizing the City Manager to Execute Consultant Agreement with West Yost Associates for Wastewater Reclamation Alternative Analysis as a SOLE SOURCE AGREEMENT.

This means they are essentially allowing West Yost to have non-competitive bids for conducting Wastewater Reclamation Alternative Analysis.  What is left up in the air now is how much this changes what seemed to be a very promising development earlier in the evening when Drs. Schroeder and Tchobanoglous made their presentation following the April 14 release of their consultant study.

This is a follow-up to the May 5th City Council hearing on 5th Street.

Once again an opportunity has been missed to move forward with the redesign that is in the adopted General Plan.  Replacing the 4 lane street we now have with the two lane plus left turn lane and bike lane configuration will finally provide some safety for the numerous bicyclists and pedestrians using the corridor, and has no negative impacts on vehicle flow.  The two most recent traffic models, one funded by the City and one from the UC Davis School of Engineering show that the redesigned street will actually improve traffic flow and travel times.

As we have been reporting for months, Westlake Plaza has remained without a grocery store anchor that is required by the city’s general plan, since May of 2006. Earlier this year it looked like the group and the owner of the property had reached a deal with the Delanos, owners of a small Bay Area chain of stores to bring a roughly 11,000 square foot grocery store to the vacant store.  However, that deal fell through when the owner apparently pulled an offer for down payment on the funding.

When Food Fair left in 2006, the owners caused considerable damage to the site, filling in the cargo bay and stripping out all of the infrastructure within the store (see photos taken in early April).

The Vanguard will have an ongoing series on the browning of Davis which will argue that Davis has fallen behind other communities in terms of environmental policies, notably with regards to climate change.  Before the series has even begun, this notion has generated a considerable amount of debate and discussion from people in somewhat surprising quarters arguing that Davis is doing far more than a lot of other communities with regards to climate change.

By way of example the city of Davis presented last week a short presentation to a county climate action group on their Low Carbon Diet program.

Don Saylor spoke to the public following a rather heated public session where angry residents weighed in on their complaints about a possible new rate structure.

It is instructive to see how the Mayor Pro Tem attempts to quell public dissent using his moderate tone.  The difference between watching the comments and reading them is instructive.