Hi readers of Yolo Environmental and Political News,

I support Covell Village because of the environmental and political ramifications if we don't vote Yes on Measure X. We will cause our town and our future more harm than good if Covell Village isn't approved and isn't beginning to deliver housing to the town before the end of the decade.

Politics

1. Redistricting occurs in 2010 after the next census. Davis will likely lose one of its representatives on the board of supervisors. In the meantime, Woodland Mayor Max Rexroad, a Republican who has supported rezoning of ag land around Woodland a number of times has the advantage in the June election over the incumbent Frank Sieferman who is a strong supporter of smart growth and farm land protection. 

After 2010 the board could easily have the political alignment it had in 1987, when it forced the city to build out through 2010 at a 1.6% growth rate. The county has a lot of financial problems with the shifting of local taxes to the state and decreased federal support for our local poor people. The county could get a lot of funding from hotels, big box retail, and high priced housing that could come with new development on county land surround Davis.  

Our new City County tax sharing agreement that will be enacted if Measure X passes will help lock in a 1% growth rate in Davis and prevent future boards of supervisors from claiming Davis isn't helping the county and accommodating its share of growth.

2. The owners of county land around Davis can run an initiative directly to the voters and attempt to buy the election as is happening in Contra Costa County this election. A rezoning initiative would be countywide vote that would preempt a Measure J vote in Davis. A lot of county residents will likely vote against our wishes in Davis, especially if we are at a very low growth rate, and they are taking our share of regional growth. Having Covell Village growth in place is a strong inoculant against this new and difficult-to-counter strategy of developers.

3. Davis will need a new 20-year General Plan starting in 2010 that accommodates our regional growth or we will lose millions in regional transportation funds and face other penalties. In that plan we will be lucky if we can get away with a 1% growth rate. More likely we will need to grow at 1.6% or more, like the rest of the region - for twenty years. 1%, which equates to 600 new people (around 250 new units) each year rising to around 750 people each year at the end of the 20-year period.

By voting for Covell Village and the accompanying 1% growth rate through 2017, we are less likely to get stuck with a 1.6% growth rate. If we vote for Measure X, we set in place so many excellent precedents on schools, habitat, farm land protection, affordable housing, renewable energy, bus passes, County/City tax sharing, and so much more. Without Covell Village starting before the General Plan, we will have nothing but theory to help the Council decide which land around Davis gets rezoned.

Note: It would take a dramatic change in local politics for neighborhood densification and infill to accommodate 250+ new homes per year, even if the PG&E site on L Street became available, and we could build out the old cannery site. 

Environment

1. Farmland and Habitat
With Covell Village, more farmland and habitat will be protected than is protected now. There is little habitat on the site now as it is farmed most of the year in crops like tomatoes that are sprayed and don't have much, if any habitat benefits. The land is zoned county industrial. It can be converted at any time to that designation without local voter permission. It is not protected farmland under the Williamson Act. The farmland in this slot of land surrounded on three sides by homes will almost certainly be converted to some sort of development in the coming years.

With the passage of Measure X, the following habitat and farm and benefits are gained and permanently y secured now. A no vote loses them.

a. 150 plus acres of pond and upland habitat to the north side of the development up against F Street. Much of this will be open to recreation. The uplands will be managed in part for Swainson's Hawk nesting and forage.

b. If Measure X passes, two acres of farmland immediately y to the north of the project will be permanently protected for each acre developed, totaling 670 acres with new farmland easements. Of this, 460 acres will gain an additional habitat easement that ensures only crops helpful to Swainson's Hawk can be planted. This is an enormous, probably 10 fold gain over what is there now in terms of habitat for the hawk and other species native to the region.

c. The development provides funds to help with the restoration of these lands, the monitoring of habitat benefits, the administration of the easements and other benefits.

d. An 80-acre organic farm immediately to the north of Northstar to the West of F Street will become a city resource if Covell Village is approved. 

2. Density.    
Growth in Covell Village is 10.4 units per residential acre. It provides more parks and school sites while at higher densities than any of our past developments and certainly more than any in the region. Higher density developments are smart growth, as is its walking distance access to stores, its numerous bike paths etc. Higher densities also result in higher amounts of affordable housing. It is *not* environmentally nor socially good to have Woodland, Dixon, West Sac, Natomas and Winters grow faster because Davis refuses to grow. Growth there provides little of the benefits to our environment that growth at Covell Village provides.

3. Air Pollution.  
Air quality will be better if Davis takes some share of regional growth and less people drove into Davis to work and go to school because they could live here. Here is a letter to the editor from Stuart Robinson that summarizes the air quality issues well.

"Over the next ten years, the same amount of growth will occur in the Yolo-Solano air quality districts whether or not Covell Village is built. Growth in Covell Village will result in better air quality than if the same number of homes were added to Dixon, Woodland, Winters or West Sacramento.

Every household in CV will pay for bus passes whether they use them or not. If they don't use them, they subsidize the fares for others so that more use mass transit.

In CV, more people will ride their bikes to school and work, or to shop at nearby Oak Tree Plaza with its easy access tunnel under Covell Blvd and many bike paths than in other developments.

If CV isn't built, more students, university staff and others working in town will drive longer distances from neighboring towns to get here, worsening our air quality

More electricity will be produced from the over 1000 homes that will have photovoltaic on their roofs than any other development in the state. This results in less pollution from the generation of the electricity that a similar community would use.

Ten thousand trees will be planted in CV leading to much better air quality than would come from other developments that plant far fewer trees.

The argument that Covell Village will harm air quality is specious and ignores that people who end up living there would have lived some place else and caused even worse air quality problems for the region."

4. Passive and Active Solar Design, Energy Efficient Buildings
Covell Village emulates Village Homes in the passive solar design, narrow east to west streets, high energy efficiency standards, trees and more. Above this, each single family resident will have a minimum of 1.1 kW in photovoltaic panels. This will be one of the very highest levels of PV in the country. Is it perfect? No but it certainly is a huge step in the direction housing and buildings need to go.

Conclusions:

1. It is too big of a risk to vote down Covell Village in hopes that we can stop growth in the future, that we can get a better project, that traffic can be improved without it, or other reasons that people have to oppose it.

2. The entire state needs the example of Covell Village so that other cities can use it to force their developers to give more back to their communities when they develop new land. Almost everything about Covell Village sets a higher standard than has been done anywhere else. We need this example in place as we develop our next General Plan.

3. We all gain benefits from the slow, managed growth that a ten-year build out of Covell Village will provide. We will gain the large infrastructure benefits like the new fire department, improvements to Pole Line and Covell, school site, Nugget Fields protection, large scale Swainson's Hawk habitat, etc that no other project will provide. Piece meal developments that some advocate will not provide these benefits, nor will they lock in the 1% growth rate as long as the Covell Village build out does.

Kevin Wolf
758-4211