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Village Farms Needs To Be Fixed

By Elaine Roberts Musser

I am trying to keep an open mind about Village Farms, a new housing development proposal for northeast Davis.  But try as I might, there are a couple of new concerns that have surfaced which really bother me.

I am disturbed at two of the features being suggested for Village Farms: to wit, a fourth fire station and a city run down payment program.  Our municipality is in so much financial trouble, that it is short more than $2 million a year just for pavement management alone. The estate of a deceased Davis citizen was just awarded a whopping $24.2 million because of the city’s negligence in not properly maintaining its trees.  We face similar financial risks because of our neglect of other city infrastructure.

The harsh reality is the city cannot afford a $3.4 million annual hit to its budget to pay for operating another fire station. Nor can it afford the cost of construction of a new fire station, potentially in the tens of millions of dollars. Similarly, the city cannot bear the expense of running a down payment program for housing, and who knows at what expense?

I don’t know who came up with with these two egregiously extravagant and completely irresponsible proposals, City Staff, the City Council, or the developer, or some combination thereof. But taxpayers do not have bottomless pockets and the city does not have a money tree growing behind City Hall.

Citizens just saw the proceeds from a recently approved sales tax increase disappear into the maw of the city’s budget dragon, before it ever was used to fix basic city infrastructure. A huge budget deficit is looming. 

I strongly urge the Planning Commission to fix this project as proposed, and recommend a more financially reasonable plan that doesn’t bankrupt the city. For more information see: https://davisvanguard.org/2025/10/council-urged-remove-fire-station/

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Comments

4 responses to “Village Farms Needs To Be Fixed”

  1. Robert Canning

    How much of the $24.2 million settlement is covered by insurance? The comment by ERM seems to imply that the city is on the hook for the entire amount. My primitive understanding of these things is that the city carries insurance for claims in litigation.

    Reply
  2. Ron O

    ” . . . a city run down payment program”

    Personally, I think the city already has enough run down housing. 🙂

    But seriously, I’d be looking at Stanley Davis houses (just east of Pole Line), if I was trying to find something relatively affordable. Built with better materials and larger lots, in a relatively convenient location. Plus, no Mello Roos that I know of. (No, I’m not trying to sell a Stanley Davis house.) Point being that there’s actually plenty of opportunities to buy a reasonably-priced house in Davis, and inventory has been significantly increasing.

    Reply
  3. Alan C. Miller

    David Greenwald was concerned about fire trucks not getting across the railroad, even though simple communication with the railroad would allow them to use Covell a mile away when needed. So I guess instead we’ll spring for a fire station on the other side of the tracks. Maybe take the magic non-existent 1/2-billion$ for moving the rail lines in Yolo Couty and you could have three fire stations in every district. I say district just to point out how stupid it is that we still have districts. Thanks, Max.

    Reply
  4. Alan Pryor

    ERM is mistaken that the City is going to pay for the down payment assistance program. The City has absolutely no cost contribution to that program. The way it was originally envisioned and proposed to the City is that the developer provides the entire down payment assistance of 15% of the purchase price to a non-profit entity who in return provides the 15% down payment assistance to the first time home buyer. The non-profit entity would in turn receive a 15% equity interest in the property such that when the property was sold the 15% equity interest would revert to the non-profit. They in turn would provide another 15% down payment assistance to the new first time home buyer. In this way, the 15% down payment assistance would accrue with the property making them permanently more affordable to all future home-buyers of that property.

    However, the City saw this pot of money and has demanded that they receive the money from the developer and provide the down payment assistance and then the City gets the 15% equity interest in the property. When the property is sold, the 15% equity interest is then deposited into a bottomless pit the City calls the Housing Trust Fund – BUT WITHOUT ANY GUARANTEES IT WILL BE USED FOR FUTURE DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS!

    This is a money grab by the City, pure and simple. And if history is any indication, the City will absolutely fritter away these millions of dollars on non-sensical and cost-ineffective programs (think of our $1 million/year wasted on the 5th St. Homeless Respite Center that serves only a little more than an average of a dozen people a day). It is very likely that not a dime of that money will ever be recycled back into future down payment assisatnce for future first time buyers of those homes.

    So I support the down payment assistance program originally offered by the developer but the City has bastardized it to be a source of future monies for their laughable Housing Trust Fund Program.

    So as I said in the beginning of this post, the down payment assistance program does not cost the City anything! But because of their shenanigans, they will end up making millions of dollars by NOT recycling the money back into future down payment assistance programs for those home and NOT making them permanantently affordable.

    Sad that a beautiful originally envisioned permanently affordable housing proposal is being absconded by the greediness of the City.

    Reply

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