New lawsuit could delay UC Davis’ $1.1 billion Aggie Square project in Sacramento
A Sacramento community group has filed a lawsuit that could delay or kill UC Davis’ $1.1 billion Aggie Square project, set to start construction next year near Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood.
The lawsuit — filed last week by Sacramento Investment Without Displacement against the University of California Board of Regents — claims the project violates the California Environmental Quality Act by failing to properly mitigate the air pollution and housing displacement issues it could cause the surrounding neighborhoods. It asks a judge to issue an order to halt all work on the project until it comes into compliance.
“Unless the deficiencies in the UC’s (environmental impact report) are corrected, the UC’s actions will exacerbate existing housing inequities and drive displacement in some of Sacramento’s most historically underserved communities,” the lawsuit, filed Dec. 21 in Sacramento County Superior Court, stated.
UC Davis officials did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Mayor Darrell Steinberg strongly criticized the lawsuit Monday. A news release from his office said it “threatens to derail the biggest economic investment Sacramento has received in decades.”
“SIWD’s action is both unfortunately and ultimately unproductive,” reads a letter Steinberg and City Council members Eric Guerra and Jay Schenirer sent SIWD on Monday. “There is no community benefits agreement without a project. There is no new inclusive economic development for neighborhoods without a project. Five thousand union construction jobs and 3,500 to 5,000 ongoing jobs, many of which will be reserved for local residents, will be lost without a project.”
Kevin Ferreira, executive director of the Sacramento-Sierra’s Building and Construction Trades Council, agreed. “This lawsuit sends a direct message to thousands of would-be workers that it is better for them to receive unemployment checks than to have a job that pays living wages and benefits,” Ferreira said in the release.
The city was going to meet with SIWD to discuss a “community benefits agreement” to ensure jobs and housing for the local residents, the letter said. Now that the lawsuit has been filed, the city can no longer meet with SIWD members, and will instead meet with other groups or individuals for input on the agreement.
SIWD includes members from the Oak Park Neighborhood Association, Sacramento Housing Alliance, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and several other community groups.
SIWD does not intend for the lawsuit to kill the project or delay construction, said Erica Jaramillo, an SIWD board member and Oak Park resident.
“We only want to make this project better,” Jaramillo said. “The lawsuit is our last chance to make sure our neighborhood doesn’t experience re-segregation. We need UC Davis to take measures to make sure the neighborhoods in the communities equitably benefit from the planned improvements.”
Aggie Square details
The project, approved last month by the Board of Regents, is located near the UC Davis medical center campus at the corner of Second Avenue and Stockton Boulevard. The first phase of the project includes four new buildings — three for lab, classroom and research space and one for retail and student housing. University officials plan for the housing to include 285 units of student housing, which will rent for $1,900 a month per unit, with at least 200 beds of affordable housing.
The City Council plans to approve a $30 million tax break to fill a funding gap for the project, along with an additional $37 million tax break intended to spark new affordable housing in the area. Under the mechanism, called an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District, a portion of the new property tax revenue that would normally go to the city’s coffers will be redirected toward helping the developer fund the project — paying for infrastructure such as roadways, stormwater and sewer improvements — through 2069.
The $37 million could include grants to affordable housing developers to help them build on vacant lots along Stockton Boulevard, rental assistance to current residents in the area and other initiatives, city officials have said.
Aside from the Aggie Square apartments, there are at least 520 new apartment units planned in the Stockton Boulevard corridor, including at least 331 that are affordable, according to data from city staff. That includes a new project at the former San Juan Motel site at 5700 Stockton Blvd. and the former Jon’s Furniture site, also on Stockton Boulevard.
The city also plans to launch a $100 million citywide affordable housing trust fund, intended to spark affordable housing development, despite a delay caused when the coronavirus pandemic took a hit to the city budget.
Affordable housing concerns
Unlike some other CEQA-related lawsuits, the lawsuit criticizes the university for not building more housing as part of the project.
“Rather than take leadership by mitigating the impacts of its own Project, the UC instead seeks to slough off that duty to other entities such as the city,” the lawsuit read.
The city’s housing plans will not be enough to offset the displacement and gentrification the project will cause, especially to low-income families of color, SIWD leaders have said previously.
Fifty-nine percent of residents in the campus’ 95817 ZIP code are renters, according to U.S. Census data. The typical apartment rent in Sacramento has increased 45% in the last seven years following the Great Recession.
In addition to the displacement concern, the project will also increase traffic, greenhouse gases and energy consumption in the area — which the lawsuit claims the university will not do enough to analyze and mitigate as required by state laws.
The university’s environmental report states that the project will cause additional vehicle travel in the area, but the campus is in what’s called a “low vehicle miles traveled-generating area” of the region with access to mass transit and multiple travel options.
The lawsuit claims the university is improperly using that as a reason not to properly mitigate for vehicle impact on air quality. “Locating a project in a ‘low-VMT area’ is not a license to increase VMT with impunity and further avoid the consequence associated with that increase in energy consumption,” the lawsuit read.
The university plans to take several steps to address environmental impacts, including providing air filters to some nearby residents, prohibiting equipment from idling for more than five minutes, and donating to the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, the report said.
Construction is set to start in 2021 and the facility is expected to open in 2023 or 2024, UC Davis officials said last month. More community meetings will be held in January.
This story was originally published December 28, 2020 at 2:42 PM.
