(From press release) If you're still undecided about Measure B authorizing the 200-acre DISC Industrial Park on prime farmland and burrowing owl habitat with 2.6 Million sq ft of commercial buildings, following are five very good reasons to vote NO on this massive, sprawling, ill-conceived project that will forever change Davis for the worse.
1. Nightmarish Traffic Gridlock
• The Environmental Impact Report estimated that more than 24,000 in-and-out daily car trips will occur for the DISC project when completed – more than doubling current traffic levels. It will turn Mace Blvd. into a parking lot causing hours of gridlock every day.
• The City and Developer have no plans at all on how they will mitigate this massive influx of new traffic. Instead, a Traffic Demand Management Plan will be prepared by the Developer in the future.
• But "Figuring it all out later" is NOT a plan!
2. Unprecedented Increases in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Our world is burning up and melting around us. This year we have seen the largest fires ever in the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, Siberia, the Amazon, and Australia along with record-breaking ice-melts in Greenland and Antarctica.
• Yet according to the project's Environmental Impact Report, "…net emissions in the year 2035 would equal 37,724.31 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year, the project would NOT meet the City’s target of net carbon neutrality by the year 2040." Instead it will increase the City's carbon footprint by over 8% from this one project.
• Our leaders passed an Emergency Climate Resolution just last year…what are they now thinking?
3. DISC will Cannibalize our Downtown
Thirty different small downtown Davis merchants recently signed a petition opposing the project's 100,000 sq ft of additional retail space (about the size of Davis Target) and the 160,000 sq ft of additional hotel space (more than twice the size of the new Marriott just across the street) because it would present severe economic hardship on the small downtown merchants already reeling from COVID.
• The DISC Environmental Impact Report (EIR) also projected than an additional 313,000 sq ft of commercial space in Davis could become newly vacant due to competition from the DISC project leaving blight in its wake.
• Our Downtown should not be Sacrificed for Developer Profits!
4. DISC will NOT have Affordable Housing
• The DISC Developer falsely claims the amount of affordable housing at the project is "record-breaking" for Davis. That is simply NOT true for either the market-rate OR the subsidized affordable housing.
• The estimated rent for a market-rate 2- bedroom apartment will be $2,500+ per month and the estimated price for a 2,200 sq ft home will be over $800,000+ and will require a $200,000+ annual salary to buy.
• There will be 128 subsidized housing units on-site which is 14.7% of the 850 total housing units. But the West Davis Active Adult Community will have 150 subsidized senior apartments on site which is 31.6% of the 475 total units.
• DISC will neither be "Affordable" or "Record-Breaking"!
5. DISC is using Voodoo Economics to Project a Profit for the City
• Property Tax revenues are based on hopelessly optimistic and unrealistic valuations that are 48% higher compared to the same analysis done by the same financial consultant for the same business park just 5 years ago and 68% higher than current regional averages.
• The City's Finance and Budget Commission voted on a slim 4-3 margin only that the project "is likely to produce a net positive financial benefit to the City"…Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
• And one Commissioner even called the consultant's assumptions a "fairy tale".
• Clearly, a thumb has been put on the scale to make the project seem economically far rosier than reality. _________________________________________________________
The more we hear about DISC, the more it is clear that Davis will get all of the traffic and pollution and the Developers will get all of the profits. It's time to just say "NO"!
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Sierra Club Endorses No on Measure B – No on DISC
Davisite 