Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Davis Planning Commission met on September 28, 2026, in Community Chambers under Acting Chair Greg Rowe. The meeting approved a revised final planned development for a second driveway, received updates on the General Plan Update (GPU), and heard extensive public testimony on the GPU, historic preservation, wetland protection, and the Boy Scout Cabin.
Welcome. I'm gonna call us to order for the planning commission meeting on September 23rd. We have a few planning commissioners who are missing, so we're um missing Alan Bennett and Rachel Fultcook and our usual chair, Michelle Weiss. So I am acting as chair. And I'm going to appoint a vice chair in Georgina. All right. With that, we're going to uh approve the agenda, then we'll have brief announcements, and then we'll open it up to public comment. Move to approve the agenda. Second. All right, all in favor. Aye. Okay. Next we'll turn to staff for brief announcements and then commissioners. We don't have any brief announcements tonight, madam. Commissioners, any brief announcements? Last meeting when we were talking about um college park specifically, I mentioned a book that I had brought up once before, and I have it with me this evening so we can get that on the record and in our notes. Um it is called a field guide to American Houses, and it's Virginia Savage and McAllister. It's used by architects, uh docents, historic uh that do historic tours of uh historic homes. Um it's a great reference, um, just so we have something uh to utilize uh when the conversation comes up in regards to our historic homes here in town. Thank you. I have one. Uh it's not necessarily brief. Um we've been receiving some documentation recently about uh plowing that has occurred at the site that was proposed for the village farms development. It seems to be fairly well documented through photographs and in-person observations that were done. And what's concerning about this is that the plowing has included the 47 acres evidently of wetlands that were scheduled to be set aside in a habitat preserve if the village farms development had in fact been approved. Um my concern about that is that this document, the biological resource assessment that was done for the village farms project, which comprised appendix D of the EIR, clearly identifies those wetlands as what's called waters of the United States. In other words, they're recognized by the Army Corps of Engineers, which has jurisdiction over the Federal Clean Water Act. Uh I did make an inquiry with staff about this as to whether or not any of the official government agencies had been informed. I was informed by Sherry that in fact the state fishing game has been informed. My concern is that doesn't go far enough because as I said, it's the federal Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Uh Fish and Wildlife Service that have jurisdiction over these wetlands and the vernal pool species. Um there's really not much a city can do because this territory is in the county. So I have not had time to do it yet, but I intend to pursue this with the county to see if they're going to investigate it. Um all of my resources at uh Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. uh fish and wildlife service are somewhat old. I think all those people are retired, and the res staff resources at those agencies are somewhat slim, but um I do find this very concerning that an area that's been identified just as recently as earlier this year in an EIR is now being plowed up. Um we've all received emails about it. And maybe at the next meeting, if I have some further answers, I'll bring those back to the commission. Thanks. Any other commissioners with announcements? Uh September 30th at 2 p.m. I'm gonna welcome Ariel Bauerbaum, who's a professor of planning from the East Coast, and she studies the impacts of school closures on land use. So there'll be uh an event on campus at 2 p.m. for folks who are interested in learning more about what school closures here in Davis might mean for community values, uh, land use, property values. Uh she is a national expert, so we're lucky to have her in town. And then first week in October, the California American Planning Association conference is holding its its annual conference in LA, and there are sessions online for those who are interested, and I hope this is a conference one day that we can all attend together, maybe with planning staff. It's a really great conference. It's coming to Sacramento next year, so it'll be