The Future of Cache Creek Gravel Mining Restoration – A New Pathway Forward
(From press release) What-When-Where – The Sierra Club Yolano Group and Tuleyome are sponsoring an in-person potluck dinner and conversation on Wednesday, July 22 from 7 to 9 pm in the Blanchard Room at the Yolo County Library, 314 E. 14th Street in Davis. (Doors open at 6:45 pm). Unfortunately, a Zoom option will not be available.
No on Measure V Campaign Gratitude
The No on Measure V campaign would like to express our sincere gratitude to the many Davis voters who voted to reject the Village Farms proposal for the many reasons we explained in our articles, literature, and online at our NoOnMeasureV.org website.
It is unfortunate that this project divided the community, but ultimately, the majority of voters understood that the project was unacceptable due to its many impacts, including toxics, flooding potential, massive traffic, enormous infrastructure costs, habitat destruction along Channel A, as well as endangerment of the vernal pools and the endangered species of Vernal Pool Tadpole Shrimp, and especially due to the unaffordable market-rate housing and the seriously inadequate affordable housing plan. The housing proposed would have been unaffordable to parents of young kids and would not have yielded hundreds of kids, and the and the long timeline of at least 15+ years did not coincide with the School District timeline, so it would not have helped the schools.
This issue is now behind us, and hopefully we can come together as a community and work on solutions instead of school closures. This process needs to start now, and the School Board needs to move forward and approve the formation of a parent-based subcommittee, as recommended by California Best Practices, to work on solutions with the School District to avoid school closures without delay.
(more…)By Matt Williams
Davis has a history of building only large footprint, rich amenities homes on large lots. As a result, as a community we have excluded the vast majority of the Davis workforce (a workforce that educates our children and provides us with the suite of services that provides us our high quality of life) from the opportunity for home ownership.
The numbers tell the story. Since 2004, Davis added 1,261 units of high-priced, detached, single-family homes on large lots for the economic elite, and at the same time has built zero (or close to zero) small-footprint, low-priced, owner-occupied homes for its citizens with modest economic/financial resources.
We are all to blame for this classist approach to owner-occupied housing, and it calls into question the motto on so many lawns that Davis Is For Everyone.
There has been very little leadership from either the citizens or our elected leaders illuminating our classist pattern of (A) catering to the elite while (B) throwing our workforce under the bus, and (C) providing no proactive guidance to developers on project concepts that could be providing “Missing Middle” housing designed and priced for the members of the workforce, rather than the elite.
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By Eileen M. Samitz
The Village Farms project, with 1,800 housing units on 498 acres at Covell Blvd. and Pole Line Road, is the largest residential project ever proposed in Davis with the worst impacts. It would take at least 15 years for the buildout, meaning many years of added congestion from construction traffic.
An earlier version was proposed in 2005 as Covell Village, and Davis voters wisely rejected it because of toxics, the 200-acre floodplain, massive traffic, enormous infrastructure costs, and unaffordable housing. Twenty years later, Village Farms has all the same problems and more.
The site is seriously handicapped. That is why the current developer, John Whitcombe, and partners including Tandem Properties, acquired the original 386-acre parcel at a bankruptcy auction for a mere $3.2 million. The original Crossroads developers abandoned it because of toxics, floodplain, and unmitigable traffic. Yet, the current developer is again trying to push it through despite the health, welfare, and safety issues, and unaffordable housing.
Massive traffic and other impacts
(more…)The math destroys their own claim
By David J. Thompson
Mutual Housing needed an $8.4 million subsidy from the city to get a 69 unit project built in South Davis. The same format applied to the 360 units affordable units at Village Farms would need a city subsidy of $44,005,518.25. And the developer is putting in $6 million and Mutual Housing affirms that it will work. Can it, do the math?
On May 29, 2026, Mutual Housing of California wrote an OpEd in favor of the Affordable Housing at Village Farms entitled “We Know What it Takes”. They do, but it is their reality that is the opposite of what they say is in their OpEd.
Mutual Housing claims they have developed 6 projects in Davis when they have done only 2.
On the first of the two (New Harmony) Mutual Housing needed a subsidy of $8,434,391 from the City of Davis to get 69 units built in South Davis. That was $122,237 subsidy per each of 69 units. Without that subsidy, New Harmony would never have been built.
The same format applied to the 360 units affordable units at Village Farms would need a city subsidy of $44,005,518.25.
Mutual Housing should be telling the citizens of Davis that $6 million from the developer will not be enough.
Memo to Davis City Council from City staff:
(more…)By David J. Thompson
Almost every day a Village Farms supporter (like Alan Pryor) makes unsubstantiated boasts about VF’s affordability features.
However, in particular only the words in the Baseline Project Features have legal standing. Those listed components are only changeable by the city or the developer except by a citywide vote. The Development Agreement between the City and the developer can be changed without having to go to a citywide vote.
As to Section 4 Affordable Housing there are only 9 lines in Section 4 of this 9-page legal agreement. There are no guarantees as to the pricing of any affordable for sale units nor any mention of them at all.
The false claims by VF supporters might win votes for the project but they are an empty promise of 1,000 homes starting at $400,000 to $500,000. If we had a commitment from the developer or the city of how many units will be in this sales price range that would be useful, but we do not. So the boasts of VF supporters are not substantiated but the reader is fooled.
That wording is nowhere to be found in either the Baseline Features or the Development Agreement.
(more…)By David J. Thompson
In today’s Vanguard (May 29,2026), there is an OpEd by Mutual Housing in support of the Village Farms project: “We Should Know: Village Farms Gives Affordable Housing Its Best Chance,” by Craig Adelman, CEO of Mutual Housing.
Early this morning Alan Pryor, a frequent poster on behalf of Village Farms supported the OpEd stating among other items that:
“Mutual Housing is the largest and most respected affordable housing developer in Northern California – and in Davis.”
Both facts promoted by Alan Pryor in this statement are simply not true. I say that as over 40 years an advocate, funder and co-developer of affordable housing in not only Davis but throughout California and five other western states.
Here is the remainder of my response to Mr. Pryor in today’s Vanguard:
(more…)[Doug Buzbee emailed the following to the Davisite for posting]
Dear Neighbor,
We are Davis teachers, and we are lucky to teach in this wonderful community. But our schools are in trouble. Every year, we have fewer and fewer new students. It’s gotten to the point that unless something changes, we will struggle to sustain the quality schools that Davis expects and deserves.
Because of declining enrollment, the Davis Joint Unified School District announced potential plans to close two elementary schools and possibly a junior high school.
Make no mistake – the ripple effects of school closures would be felt across our town, and not just by families with students. Deep-rooted school communities would be dissolved, surrounding neighborhoods would become less desirable, biking to school would become harder, car traffic would increase, teachers would be let go, and the list goes on.
Those of us who teach at these threatened schools face a simple question from our students: why is this happening? The answer is clear – Davis has not done enough in recent years to make it possible for young families to move here.
This is why we are supporting Measure V on the June ballot.
(more…)There is still a chance to preserve and restore habitats to help native species recover, including at Village Farms
By Kathryn Calderala
Environmentalism – Still a dirty word for some. A category Davis has a long history of claiming to embrace when the results show otherwise. As one example (and there are many); Davis used to be the proud stewards of a healthy population of Western Burrowing Owls – those pint-sized, ground dwelling owls perched on fence posts and signs. Almost everyone I have met since I moved here told me how they used to see owls everywhere. Yet now the species is almost gone from the county (no, they are not at Wildhorse anymore). They are considered extirpated – no longer nesting here and we are lucky to see a handful of individuals trying to overwinter in the area before moving on. Mostly they have been done in by the strange apathy that pervades the area.
If a pint-sized owl – that lives underground and has more charisma than most species – can’t be a priority, what hope do all the other dwindling native species have? The California Tiger Salamander – an icon of the state. The Vernal Pool Tadpole Shrimp – a straightup throwback to prehistoric design, trundling around like mini horseshoe crabs. The Western Spadefoot Toad – a cat-eyed chunk of toad that smells like peanuts when they are mad. If we, as a community, cannot rouse ourselves enough to fight for the underdogs, what hope do we have for the future?
(more…)By Rena Nayyar
I have recently learned that, without my knowledge or permission, I have been put on an endorsement list for Yes on Measure V (Village Farms). How did this happen? I have actively opposed Measure V (Village Farms) from the beginning because of its many problems even though I am a teacher in Davis concerned about school closures.
I have spoken in opposition to the Village Farms project due to its many impacts at multiple city and school board meetings, the local Sierra Club group, and to the Davis Teacher’s Association. I have even helped table at the NO booth at the Farmer’s Market, and donated to the No campaign. So, how could my name have possibly been put on an endorsement list? How many other “endorsers” are also unknowingly on this Yes on Measure V list as well?
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Davisite 