By Eileen M. Samitz
Willowgrove is a 232-acre housing project with 1,250 units on Covell Boulevard, across from Harper Junior High School. The project will finally be on the November 3rd ballot as Measure W after many long delays since informal conversations about the project first began over 10 years ago.
The good news is that the project has benefited from much public input, and the resulting project has been worth waiting for. Willowgrove has many amenities and features that make it a desirable project for Davis. It was designed for Davis with a lot of direct input from the community.
The Willowgrove project developers have been upfront and transparent from the beginning. This is the first time in Davis history that a project has offered a completed subdivision map before the Measure J/R/D vote, allowing the community to see the final project design before it is approved. In addition, the agricultural mitigation land has been identified and disclosed to the public before the Measure J/R/D vote. This early disclosure is also a first for Davis and hopefully will set a precedent for future proposals.
The best news about the agricultural mitigation is that it will preserve most of Bullseye Farms, an award-winning farm recognized for its sustainability practices. The Beeman family, who own the farm, are icons in Yolo County and it is great news to have this 2:1 agricultural mitigation arrangement to keep their farm in agricultural production in perpetuity.
Willowgrove will have smaller houses on smaller lots, making them more financially attainable for Davis residents, young or old, and particularly for young families. In turn, this housing will help bring more children into the school district’s classrooms, which need additional students to help keep our schools open. The project will offer affordable housing, which will be built early in the development process because the developers have partnered with The Pacific Companies, an affordable housing builder with a great reputation and track record. The affordable housing, which is 20% of the total (more than required), will be built without city funds or cost to the taxpayers.
The project will build a beautiful 17-acre community park to serve the whole city, including an indoor gymnasium, with all costs covered by the developers. The park will offer more sports fields needed by youth sports programs and a terrific community gathering area. There will also be a smaller neighborhood park in the north of the project and a dog park.
There will be generous open space (over 70 acres), including parks and trails. The open space north of Channel A will be enhanced with additional trees and native plantings to attract wildlife and provide habitat. Importantly, no development will occur north of Channel A, which is guaranteed in the Baseline Project Features.
There will also be an attractive and conveniently located transit hub, which will be a great asset to the community.
One of the most important features is that Willowgrove has an already-built underpass beneath Covell Boulevard for safe access, at no additional cost to Davis residents. This underpass will provide bicycle connectivity between Wildhorse, Mace Ranch, East Davis, and beyond. The underpass is a northward extension of the Mace Ranch bike path system directly onto the Willowgrove property.
Another positive is Willowgrove’s very favorable fiscal outlook. The recent Bay Area Economics (BAE) report (the city’s consultant) was updated with the final economic data. The report summarized the following benefits:
- Approximately $1 million in annual fiscal surplus to the City, totaling about $15 million over 15 years.
- $1.24 billion added to Davis’s property tax base.
- $11 million for currently unfunded traffic improvements along East Covell Boulevard, the Mace Corridor, and I-80 interchanges.
- A $3.5 million public safety contribution, paid as a lump sum.
- $21 million or more in developer-funded park and recreation improvements.
Willowgrove’s public process and cooperative planning have resulted in the exceptional project it is today. As their campaign states, “Willowgrove was designed for Davis”, thanks to the help of Davis residents who provided extensive input during more than 70 community meetings. That is one of the reasons why so many opponents of Village Farms, like myself, support Willowgrove. Thanks to the cooperation of the Willowgrove developers, a lot of community input was integrated into the design of the project.
Furthermore, unlike Village Farms (Measure V in June 2026), Willowgrove does not have the many problems associated with the much larger 1,800-unit Village Farms project. Those problems included toxic contamination concerns from the adjacent Old Davis Landfill/Burn Dump and Sewage Treatment Plant; the massive 200-plus-acre floodplain; the need to move over one million cubic yards of soil (to try to fill the floodplain); significant destruction of habitat including the vernal pools containing endangered species and rare native plants; unsafe access; and a seriously inadequate affordable housing plan that would likely have resulted in no affordable housing being built. It is notable that the vernal pools were recently plowed despite their documentation in the Village Farms EIR as protected habitat.
In contrast, Willowgrove does not have any of these complications. It is a well-designed project, thanks to public input and Measure J/R/D, which gives our community the leverage to negotiate for better projects like Willowgrove.
Since the State has imposed regional growth requirements on Davis and all other cities, we need Willowgrove to help accommodate Davis’ Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), or “fair share,” housing requirements. If we do not meet these requirements, the City could be sued and/or sanctioned by the State, as some other cities have been. In addition, we risk the possibility of the State attempting to overturn Measure J/R/D, in which case we would have no say in future developments requiring annexation.
Since our City is essentially out of adequate land to accommodate its RHNA housing requirements, we need to expand onto land adjacent to existing neighborhoods. Meeting these requirements through infill and higher-density development alone would require many homes in existing single-family neighborhoods to be converted into higher-density housing (i.e. 4-plexes, 6-six plexes, or apartment complexes), which most residents would not prefer. There are simply not enough available infill sites to satisfy a significant amount of our requirement.
Thanks to community input, Willowgrove is one of the best projects ever proposed in Davis. I hope you will join me and many others, including a majority of the volunteers who worked on the campaign opposing Village Farms, in voting YES on Measure W for Willowgrove on the November 3rd ballot.
Eileen Samitz is a former Davis Planning Commissioner and served on the City of Davis 2001 General Plan Update Land Use Committee and the subsequent Housing Element Update Committee.
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