UC Housing Developers Should Consider Fair Oaks' Interests

The  in the center of one of Fair Oaks' oldest properties. The hope is the development will provide financial resources to fund scholarships for the university's school of medicine. However, this doesn't necessarily make it the right decision.

In a weird twist of fate, the property is home to the Davis Ranch, named after Walter Magnum Davis, a surgeon who practiced medicine from 1890 to 1910. His daughters Oma and Elizabeth donated the land to the UC Davis School of Medicine. 

Yes, UC Davis has every right to develop the land. After all, it does belong to them. Is it a sound investment, though? It could just as easily backfire on the university and then what? Fair Oaks is stuck with a housing development no one asked for.

One of the problems with this idea is there isn't much empirical evidence to prove it will be successful in fulfilling any of the university's reasons for building it in the first place. Yet, the project in and of itself is what most local residents are concerned about. 

Removal of more than 200 trees - some as old as the community itself (if not older) - and the development of at least 17 single-family homes on the land is just the proverbial tip of the oak tree. The proposal also calls for an extension of Pollard Avenue to run straight through Davis Ranch and connect with Fair Oaks Boulevard at the other end. Residents believe the extension will increase traffic through the area - an area that, for all intents and purposes, remains fairly secluded behind the lush ranch.

Putting it lightly, the development would certainly seem out of place.

Aside from the controversy surrounding the proposal and the lack of evidence proving it will be successful at attracting potential residents, what guarantee is there the development will provide enough resources to fund scholarships?

Fair Oaks is non-conforming and though there are small new developments around town like the aforementioned proposal, people here in Fair Oaks kind of like it the way it is.

The reality, however, is UC Davis can develop the land however they see fit (subject to any applicable permitting requirements), and finding ways to raise finances to provide scholarships isn't a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. Why does this have to be the solution though? And the irony that an agricultural school actually wants to remove 208-plus trees to make way for what could be a bunch of formulaic track homes isn't lost on this journalist.

Right now the staff report to the Sacramento County Planning Commission is under preparation, and the commission is not at a point where it can provide a recommendation. No hearing date has been scheduled for the planning commission but it should be in approximately 60 days, said Tricia Stevens, principal planner for Sacramento County's Community Planning and Development Department.

It is being scheduled for the next meeting of the Fair Oaks Community Planning Advisory Council (CPAC) in May, Stevens said.

The university's Assistant Director of Endowment Real Estate, Allen Meacham has been cited as saying his staff is doing the community a favor by proposing a development less dense than what is in line with Sacramento County's general plan. That's true. The property is zoned for RD-5 (5 units per acre), according to the proposal's environmental report. However, the proposal fails to recognize the development would impact an already established neighborhood - something the county calls "infill" development.

As a result, the planning council is trying to work out a recommendation that recognizes the right to build under the existing zoning, while at the same time addressing neighborhood issues relating to circulation and tree preservation.

Sure, it's great UC Davis has an invested interest in its new and existing student body, but this plan shows no signs the university understands how this community invests its interests.

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