When the city of Davis doesn't build enough housing to accommodate its work force, the rest of the region suffers. It means more traffic, more air pollution and more stress on people who have to commute long distances to work in Davis.
Wildhorse Ranch, the small housing development Davis voters are being asked to approve Tuesday, will not provide all the housing Davis needs, but it is a step in the right direction and deserves a "yes" vote.
If approved by Davis city voters, Measure P would rezone 26 acres on the city's northeastern boundary from agricultural to residential. That would allow landowners to build Wildhorse Ranch, a 191-unit residential development with 40 apartments, 78 attached town houses and 73 single-family detached homes.
Opponents say Davis is growing fast enough and that this development, on the outer edge of the city, would lead to more sprawl. Wildhorse Ranch proponents counter that this is a small, compact development within city limits, surrounded on three sides by housing. It includes apartments that would be affordable to people of low and very low incomes, and design features that will conserve water and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In this debate, proponents have more than made their case. Anywhere else in the state, Wildhorse Ranch would be hailed as a model.
The development's 40 affordable apartments are designed to be completely accessible to people with disabilities. Developers routinely receive subsidies to build such housing, but Wildhorse Ranch developers are not asking for any. All housing in the development will occupy only 13 acres of the 26-acre site. The rest will be filled with buffer zones planted in trees and green space. Every housing unit, including the apartments, will have solar panels and other energy efficiency features.
None of this satisfies opponents. They say the Davis region already has more than 2,000 new housing units approved through 2013, including enough low-income units to satisfy state affordable housing targets.
But those calculations include West Village, a housing development set to be built on university-owned land in Yolo County, not in the city of Davis. Moreover, the bulk of the new housing in West Village, more than 1,000 units, will be for students. The rest, 475 houses, will be available to university employees only.
Davis needs housing for non-university middle- and low-income workers, teachers, police officers, retail clerks and plumbers. It needs to embrace well-planned projects that are sensitive to Davis' quality of life.
That's why, on Tuesday, the The Bee recommends a "yes" vote on Measure P.
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