Davis Planning Commission Meeting - September 10, 2025
Davis Planning Commission Meeting - September 10, 2025
The Davis Planning Commission met on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, at 7:00 PM in Community Chambers. The meeting began with a welcome to new alternate commissioner Rachael Fulp-Cook, unanimous approval of the agenda, staff announcements on various development projects, and a brief public comment period. The consent calendar was approved en masse. The main agenda item was a presentation and discussion on the 2025 General Plan Update (GPU), focused on land use and community design issues.
Consent Calendar
- Item A: Update on Commission Requests for Information and Commission Initiated Tasks – informational.
- Item B: Approval of minutes from the May 28, 2025 Planning Commission meeting.
- Both items were approved unanimously by a single motion.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Ning Wan, former member of the Historical Resources Management Commission, addressed the commission. He claimed to be the legal owner of a family fund and asserted that property related to the "Bingin Range" and other holdings belong to his family. He urged the commission to pay attention to actual property ownership during development and expressed concern about historical preservation. No other members of the public spoke on non-agenda items.
Discussion Items
- Item 6A: 2025 General Plan Update Presentation
- Principal Planner Dara Dungworth introduced Eric Yerkovich from Raimi+ Associates, the city's GPU consultant.
- Mr. Yerkovich presented an update on the GPU process, including the vision statement ("Davis Advances Safe, Fair, Healthy, and Sustainable Neighborhoods where everyone has what they need to thrive and succeed"), project outcomes, and existing conditions data.
- Key data presented: City population ~65,000 (44% growth since 1990); UC Davis students/employees ~47,000 (but many live on campus or commute); population aging (65+ up 60% since 2010, under 18 down 20%); ~15,000 jobs in city; 75% of workers commute into Davis, 85% of residents commute out; 1% of land area vacant; about two-thirds of land is residential, with 50% low-density single-family.
- The commission discussed unmet housing needs (affordable, family, senior), barriers (vacant land scarcity, protection of agricultural lands via Measures J/R/D, complex planned development zoning), and strategies (infill, upzoning downtown, annexation, innovative housing models, leveraging UC Davis assets, improving intersection design, addressing financial feasibility).
- Commissioners offered extensive feedback: Vince McLaughlin emphasized annexation within the sphere of influence, traffic roundabouts, and UC Davis contributing to student/faculty housing. Alan Bennett called for annexation analysis and leveraging UC Davis for R&D job creation. Greg Rowe criticized the rigid planned development (PD) zoning system and high development fees, and noted economic challenges (apartment vacancy rates, high interest rates). Catherine Brinkley highlighted access to Putah Creek, climate goals (30x30), traditional ecological knowledge, highway decking over I-80, microgrids, and the PG&E corp yard opportunity. Georgina Valencia (via video? no, actually she didn't speak; but Rachel Fulp-Cook and Michelle Weiss did) – Rachel Fulp-Cook stressed incubator space for startups, annexation feasibility, and the need to attract young families while older adults age in place. Chair Michelle Weiss questioned whether annexation could include unincorporated areas like El Macero, suggested possibly reducing parks to free up land, and emphasized discussion with financial stakeholders.
- No formal vote was taken; the discussion was to inform the GPU process. Staff will incorporate the feedback.
Key Outcomes
- The commission confirmed the identified land use and community design issues and suggested additional items (economic development incentives, streamlined zoning, traffic improvements, climate resilience, annexation planning, aging-in-place strategies).
- No motions or votes were made on the GPU; it remains a work in progress.
- The long-range calendar was reviewed: upcoming items include a September 30 special council meeting on peripheral project policy, October 8 Commission Palooza 2 (major JRD changes), October 22 Village Farms workshop (possibly combined with Willow Grove draft EIR public comment), November 12 public hearing for Village Farms (final EIR, annexation, development agreement, etc.), and December 10 historic resources transition ordinance.
- Staff urged commissioners to review materials early for the complex Village Farms and Willow Grove projects.
Meeting Transcript
Davis Planning Commission of Wednesday, September 10th. Before we do anything on the agenda, I'd like to welcome our newest commissioner and put her on the spot for a minute just to introduce herself to all of you. Say a few words. Hi, everyone. Happy to be here. My name is Rachel Fulp Cook. I've been a Davis resident for 14 years now. Served on the Social Services Commission for four and a half years as chair for two. And my background is in public health. I actually I work for UCD and I do research in the School of Nursing around family caregiving. So that is the lens that I will apply here. It's not just you know health as the absence of disease, but a holistic version of health and well-being in Davis. So very happy to be here. Thanks so much. Welcome. We're excited to have you. And you will be voting. We're not too many things to well. There's a few things to vote on this evening. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, but it's it's an easier transition than when there's like this massive important vote, and you're like, oh, but we've all been there. I'm looking at Linda, I'm looking at Donna, we've all been there. Yeah. Okay. So with that, um, want to make a motion but approve the agenda. People want to change the agenda. Motion to approve. Okay. Unanimous consent here. Okay, thank you. All right. And with that, let's move on to any brief announcements. Staff. Thank you, Madam Chair. Derrett Dunworth, Principal Planner. Um, I just have some project updates that I can go over as briefly as possible now, or we can save it till the long-range calendar at your preference. Now's fine. Go ahead. Uh Village Farms. The update there is that development agreement negotiations are proceeding, and we will get more in to scheduling and talk about the other commissions that they have yet to go before with the long range calendar, so splitting our splitting it up there a little bit. Similarly, with Willow Grove, um, commission meetings are scheduled for the next several months, so be watching for those. Um, the draft EIR environmental impact report is expected to be out for the 45-day public review period uh later this month, so please be watching for that. Uh if you drive along Covell, you may have noticed that Palomino Place has commenced construction. Um, and I can have more detailed information at our next meeting, but um they've broken ground officially. Um had asked about Bretton Woods and the Riesling Shasta and Covell intersection improvements that had been a topic of conversation when we were looking at the URC project design review. And um just wanted to let you all know that through the last development agreement amendment when de novo de Nova took took over the project, um, those improvements were deferred until the 175th building permit. And um that being the case, staff is still working with the developer to hopefully have that work started sooner, but that is the obligation at this point in time. Uh Child's Ranch, also known now as Harvest Glen. Um, the developer century of the home builder century has been working with the neighbors to minimize their construction off-site impacts as much as possible.
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