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Category: Politics

  • Would Village Farms affect water quality in the rest of Davis?

    By Matt Williams

    Regarding Measure V, one of the issues the Village Farms development brings to the forefront is the availability of water.  

    The water right of the Woodland Davis Clean Water Agency (WDCWA), which serves Davis, is a “junior” permit not a “senior” permit.  In “perfect” years (years without drought or low snowpack impacts) the permit authorizes WDCWA to utilize UP TO 45,000 acre feet of water per year. 

    The words “up to” are wiggle words, just like the wiggle words “may” and “if” in the Baseline Features of Measure V.

    However, 45,000 almost never happens because very few years are absent any drought impacts. As a result, WDCWA’s surface water diversions have been consistently and significantly limited during summer months and other dry periods. 

    During these times, to backfill what it isn’t allowed to divert, WDCWA utilizes up to 10,000 acre feet of water under a “senior” water right purchased from the Conaway Preservation Group. 

    However the 10,000 acre feet are significantly less than the number of acre feet that are not allowed to be diverted under the terms of WDCWA’s “junior water right.”

    How does that affect Davis water users … humans and plants alike?

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  • Pro and con arguments concerning Village Farms in the Wary One

    By Roberta Millstein

    This isn’t an article so much as it is a pointer to two other articles in The Wary One. As most Davisites know, Bob Dunning left the Davis Enterprise (and his Wary Eye column) for Substack and his reborn newsletter The Wary Eye in 2024 — Bob tells the story here.

    As a special feature, Bob solicited two new essays on Village Farms, free and open to everyone, no subscription needed. I was the person he asked to write a “no” essay, even though (as I made clear in my essay) I am not working on the “no” campaign. I focused on the question of affordable housing and whether the project is well-designed for our climate crisis. The “yes” essay was written by Sandy Whitcombe, one of the developers of Village Farms.

    I very much appreciate the opportunity to guest write for The Wary One and also appreciate his willingness to try to engage the community in discussion. (In honor of Bob, the previous sentence does not end with an exclamation point).

    You can find the two essays here: https://www.thewaryone.com/p/today-we-present-two-essays-on-measure/comment/258381824

  • The Future of Davis is Rooted in Community: Why I Support Village Farms

    By Linda Deos

    As a member of the Davis City Council, my primary responsibility is to look toward the horizon. I am constantly asking: How do we preserve the soul of the city we love while ensuring it remains a viable, vibrant home for the next generation? Since the initial planning application for Village Farms was submitted in April 2023, I have engaged deeply with the details, the data, and—most importantly—the residents.

    Over the last three years, this project has undergone rigorous public scrutiny, environmental review, and repeated refinement. After witnessing this collaborative process and reviewing the robust commitments secured in the project’s Baseline Features, I am proud to support Measure V. Village Farms Davis is not just another housing development; it is a meticulously planned extension of our community values.

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  • Lack of transparency in the relationship between DJUSD and Village Farms developer

    Screenshot

    By Elizabeth Coolbrith

    I am a parent with two children in DJUSD schools, and I’m sharing this focused update because Davis voters deserve to see some specific information that hasn’t been laid out clearly in one place. This goes to the heart of transparency and illuminates an aspect of the relationship between DJUSD leadership and the Village Farms developer. Now that these documents are public, I feel a responsibility to share them.

    Two pieces stand out:

    First, there is long‑term developer funding of DJUSD entities tied to Village Farms developer John Whitcombe and Tandem Properties, who have been major funders of DJUSD through the Tandem Foundation. Public records show roughly $40,000 a year in donations to Davis schools for over 20 years, totaling close to $500,000 as of 2023. These generous donations are legal. But they can create the appearance of a very close, ongoing financial relationship between this developer and the district.

    Second, newly released public records include an email from the Village Farms development team asking DJUSD to keep Measure V communications off email.

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  • Measure V is a Very Bad Idea

    By Glen Holstein

    The Environmental Impact Report provided by the Village Farms consortium includes the following: “groundwater beneath the project site…appears to have been impacted by the former landfill…Eight contaminants were found to exceed the Maximum Contaminant Level…detected …PFAS…compounds and manganese appear to originate from the Old Davis Landfill.  Three PFAS compounds exceeded their…USEPA water quality standards…Anomalously high…groundwater elevations were reported…for…dry seasons…the depth to water…was reported as 9.93 feet on September…elevations…not typical of dry-season conditions.”

    Despite their own EIR’s abundant evidence Village Farms consortium plans to invite home buyers to live just a few feet above toxic groundwater, which it has consistently either ignored or minimized.  The resulting potential outcome is no mystery.  A New York state school district  first built schools in such a place. and then arranged for homes to be built there as well so families would fill the schools.  The only problem was that when the toxic groundwater rose in elevation, as it often does, kids and their parents living there ended up in hospitals instead of classrooms.

    This Love Canal disaster of the 1970’s was so notorious it led to Superfund legislation, but those who made it happen could at least honestly claim nothing like it had ever happened before.  Those who fast tracked Village Farms in Davis, however, have no such excuse.

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  • Two issues about Willowgrove Project need to be addressed

    [The following email by Dan Carson and Elaine Roberts Musser was sent to the Davis City Council today and is posted to the Davisite at the request of the authors]

    Dear City Councilmembers,

    As you move toward final action on Tuesday on the Willowgrove project, which could provide new housing our community needs, we urge you to address two significant issues (both referenced in your new city staff report) that we strongly believe will undermine its chances of winning voter approval this November.  

    Fourth City Fire Station

    Last month, at a Planning Commission hearing on the Willowgrove project, a city planning staff member suggested the city has decided to build a fourth city fire station. For weeks city staff has since declined to answer specific questions posed to them about the city’s intentions. We believe this is an important matter for you to consider, given the findings of a city consultant in a 2018 study, that our community does not need an expensive fourth fire station the city cannot afford. 

    Additionally your new city staff report contains a strong hint city staff are still pursuing a four-fire station plan. Notably, it cites a fiscal analysis by BAE Urban Economics that analyzes the projected net operating costs to the city from just such a new fourth city fire station. Staff selectively cites a version of the BAE fiscal analysis that assumes the 15 year fiscal impact of such a  project “would be slightly negative at $190,422”. This is based on the assumption that other city residents gained from future new development projects would shoulder most of the costs of the operation of a fourth new fire station. 

    Why is this matter relevant to your consideration of Willowgrove?

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  • In support of Measure V

    By Ron Glick

    At the beginning of the 21st century, after a period of strong growth, concerned citizens of Davis passed two major reforms to preserve farmland. The first was the Measure J ordinance that requires a popular vote to rezone agricultural land to other uses. This is the reason Measure V, which I support, is on the June ballot. The second reform was a parcel tax dedicated to the preservation of open space around Davis. 

    Together, these two reforms have been incredibly successful in preserving farmland in the area directly surrounding the city of Davis. In the last 25 years, and with little acrimony or fanfare, thousands of acres of land have been purchased by the city or otherwise preserved under conservation easements. The City of Davis Open Space Commission deserves the thanks of everyone in Davis who cares about land preservation.

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  • A Long-Term, Pragmatic Plan for a Livable & Sustainable Davis

    By The Davis Citizens Planning Group

    The Davis Citizens planning group would like to present our vision for a pragmatic, realistic, and sustainable way to develop our city going forward.   This vision represents several months of work and builds upon a series of articles we have published over the past two years on the topics of how we might plan our city to have housing that is  more affordable, sustainable, and a city that is more liveable and economically viable.

    In the past we have framed our commentary in a reactive way with respect to the developments in the housing proposals being considered.   Going forward, we have decided to be more proactive, starting with best practices, and advocating for a top-down city-wide vision for how we develop our city not just for the upcoming 25-year general plan cycle, but looking towards the end of the century.

    Over the past few decades, more and more thinkers in the field of urban planning have come around to endorsing what is essentially the same set of strategies for urban planning:

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  • It’s A “May” Day for Village Farms

    Words Do Matter

    By David Thompson

    To: Citizens of Davis on May Day
    From:  David J Thompson. Affordable Housing Advocate
    Re: Recent words used by or about Village Farms

    Text in recent mailer from Village Farms reads as follows:

    “Davis Needs Housing – Village Farms is the Answer, Housing for All…construction of 360 Permanently Affordable Homes.”

    140 high density rental apartments very low-income families (max income family of 4 = $31,450)

    140 high density rental apartments low-income families, (max income family of 4 = $83,900).

    80 permanently restricted for sale units for moderate income families (max income for family of 4 = $136,800.

    As a long-time co-developer of affordable housing in Davis, I see a real problem in getting these units being built except  possibly as high density apartments with a very hard to get substantial subsidy. These will not be single family homes and there is no subsidy for this income group.

    These “360 Permanently Affordable Homes” imply houses, however 280 of these units would be apartments, not houses only for lower income qualified residents. Also, this developer is not building any of these affordable units except he “may” build 100 lower income affordable rental apartments in the last phase (Phase 3) in 10 years or more down the road. But he “may” not. Let me explain this disingenuous affordable housing “plan”.

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  • Super PAC has now poured over 1.1 million dollars into ads supporting Eric Jones

    The latest venture-capital funded mailer is downright Orwellian

    By Roberta Millstein

    Mailer received 27 April 2026. Annotated by the author.

    Eric Jones’s campaign to unseat Mike Thompson in Congressional District 4 has repeatedly promised not to take money from special interests and PACs.  As I have already documented in detail (see earlier articles here and here), that promise is essentially meaningless.  A former partner of the Dragoneer Investment Group, Jones has received large individual donations and repeated campaign advertising funded by massive donations to the New Leadership Now Super PAC from his fellow venture capitalists, including a huge donation from the family of Dragoneer’s founder, Marc Stad.

    Expenditures for ads in support of Eric Jones’s campaign (mailers, TV, internet, etc.) from New Leadership Now currently exceed 1.1 million dollars, as this screenshot from the FEC website shows [UPDATE: over $1.33 million as of May 9, 2026]:

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