commenTary

that fund infrastructure with an eye to long-term return will invest in compact, mixed-use development — especially in historic districts — and not in sprawl.”

Beginning with the 1974 “Costs of Sprawl,” considerable research studies have shown that dense urban areas return far more revenue per acre than peripheral, auto-oriented development; the former actually subsidize the latter. (See the case studies website of Urban3: https://www.urbanthree.com/ case-study/ )

Since the new Davis Downtown Plan addresses this, at least in the short term we need to avoid peripheral development that does not pay for its own ultimate financial impact on a wide range of city services. Portland, Ore., and the smaller California cities of Pasadena, Petaluma, Hercules and Lodi are examples of communities where the advantages of building strong downtowns can be observed today.

According to the U.S. EPA, Lodi’s $4.5 million retrofit of five downtown blocks helped attract

60 new businesses and increased sales taxes by 30%. The twopronged realities of the climate crisis and city budget shortfalls caused by low-density peripheral development demonstrate that Davis must now confront the fallacy of continued, sprawled development. Instead, we must concentrate on building up the downtown core (and upzoning existing neighborhood shopping centers) with mixed use development and dense urban-centric housing. This is what we mean by “growing up,” both literally and figuratively.

The city does not need to wait for developers to come forward with projects on private land. The 2019 inventory of city-owned property recommends moving their outdated corporation yard facilities off the three East Fifth Street parcels to the city’s old landfill site just north of town and making those Fifth Street parcels available for mixed-use housing. The mixed uses could include the tax income generating research and development functions (close to the downtown and university) that initially led to city consideration of the unpopular DiSC project.

The city has already designated East Fifth Street and surrounding areas as an economic ”Opportunity Zone” (see city website) encouraging investment by offering developers capitalgains tax benefits. The PG&E parcel will be a tremendous asset to this redevelopment strategy when it eventually becomes available. In the meantime, the city could generate an RFP presenting the possibilities from the new Downtown Plan, the Opportunity Zone and other central sites with housing and mixed-use potential. (Previous RFPs for affordable housing sites received numerous detailed responses.)

The city council has appointed two subcommittees, one for inclusionary (affordable) housing and one to study peripheral sites for potential development. Clearly, there is a significant need for increased affordable housing, but any consideration of peripheral housing sites should be part of a much needed updating of the city’s General Plan in the context of a community-wide discussion.

Coordinated city planning studies with the university and other regional agencies could be fruitful. We urge the city council to pause the peripheral sites subcommittee’s efforts until a full General Plan update is underway.

We are not opposed to the city growing as may be required to meet our “housing needs”, but perimeter growth should only occur after infill densification opportunities are achieved. It is always easier for Council members to cave into the developer pressure to build yet another peripheral development, just because it takes less effort and seems like a short-term housing band aid.

But the long-term, fiscally and environmentally sound alternative is to develop a dense, mixed use, walkable, urban core and compact mixed use, walkable neighborhoods We need a council with a long-term vision for our community. Davis must grow up, not out.

— Judy Corbett is the retired executive director of the Local Government Commission. Robert Thayer is a UC Davis emeritus professor and land planner. Stephen Wheeler is a professor in the UCD department of human ecology. James Zanetto is an architect and planner.