This week's defeat by Davis voters of a solar-powered development means the city probably won't grow beyond its current borders so long as residents have the final word, developers and former mayors said in the election's aftermath.

On Tuesday, Wildhorse Ranch, a proposed 191-unit development on the city's eastern outskirts, lost at the ballot box by a 3-1 margin. Seventy-five percent of voters said no to building homes and apartments on the 26-acre site where horses now graze.

Opponents cited various reasons for the project's overwhelming defeat, saying that the timing was poor – too many houses already are for sale in the down economy – and that the developer's political ads failed to convince voters.

Sue Greenwald, a city councilwoman who has staunchly opposed growth, said home prices in Davis have fallen by more than 20 percent, and houses for sale are sitting on the market. There was a feeling that building new houses would worsen the problem.

"It was foolish to run this campaign at the depths of the housing market," Greenwald said.

The election marked the second time Davis voters have shot down a housing development under Measure J – the local rule that requires a vote when developers want to build housing tracts on open space outside city limits.

In 2005, they rejected Covell Village – a vastly larger project in the city's north area – 60 percent to 40 percent.

Developers said the overwhelming defeat of the Wildhorse Ranch project, which was designed to include energy-efficient housing and solar panels on every roof, sent a more powerful message.

"That's a mandate," said Paul Petrovich, a developer who has built five projects in Davis, including a major shopping center. Petrovich graduated from the University of California, Davis, and once called the city home.

"What it means is there's no interest in going beyond the current boundaries, even if a project is gold-plated," he said. "It's off the table, at least for a generation."

The Wildhorse Ranch developers – Rancho Cordova-based Parlin Development Co. – spent $240,000 to hold Tuesday's election and shelled out thousands more for campaign ads, mailers and consultants.

Petrovich said he knew of no other investors who would spend the money to wage a campaign in Davis with the odds stacked against them.

That could change only if housing prices soar so high that the potential profits justify the risks, said building consultant Dean Wehrli of the Sullivan Group in Sacramento.

Developers got Davis voters' message loud and clear, he said. "The local electorate is intransigent about development, regardless of how sensitive a project is to environmental concerns."

Jerry Adler, a former Davis mayor who did not take a public stand on Wildhorse Ranch, agreed. He said over the past 40 years, a strong anti-growth attitude had taken hold.

"There's not going to be any growth beyond the existing city limits," he said. "That's the plain fact of the matter."

Another former Davis mayor, Maynard Skinner, was hired as a consultant by the Wildhorse Ranch developers to guide them through the permitting process and council approval that led to the election.

After Tuesday's result, he also doesn't foresee the city expanding. "People don't want any growth in Davis," Skinner said. "They like the small-town atmosphere, and they're concerned about the ambience."

Following a decade of new housing construction, Davis voters gave themselves the extraordinary power to control growth in 2000 by passing Measure J, which governs the rezoning of farmland or open space for residential development.

Only a handful of communities in the state have similar provisions; most of the others are wealthy, coastal enclaves.

The Davis ballot initiative comes up for renewal next year, and few doubt voters will approve it.

Councilwoman Greenwald said that hundreds of houses are waiting to be built within city limits, including several sizable infill projects.

And UC Davis is building its own neighborhood with student apartments and 475 homes for faculty and staff.

The university has broken ground on its West Village project near Highway 113 and Hutchison Drive, where workers are laying the infrastructure for the on-campus neighborhood.

During the campaign, voters were able to see the work at the site and became even more convinced that building homes at Wildhorse Ranch was unnecessary, Greenwald said.

"It was just an abstraction until they broke ground at West Village," she said. "Now people see a huge amount of development in the works."

Dick Livingston, a retired teacher who has managed a number of campaigns in Davis, said developers face a tough obstacle in Measure J but have to wage effective campaigns to convince voters. The Wildhorse Ranch group hadn't done that, he said.

Mark Siegler, a Davis resident and economics professor at California State University, Sacramento, who opposed the project, said the builder's emphasis on promoting "green" on its campaign mailers may have backfired.

The mailers featured photos of barns, autumn leaves and yes, someone hugging a tree.

"The green, green, green stuff just got them away from the actual message. Nowhere did you see an artist's rendering of the project. Folks said … 'What is this? I don't want to see a picture of someone hugging a tree. I want to know what this thing actually is.' "

Call The Bee's Hudson Sangree, (916) 321-1191.