Letter: DiSC 2022 is a Trojan horse
May 25, 2022
I strongly oppose the DiSC 2022 project and there are plenty of reasons why, including the plethora of false claims by the Ramos developers.
First, the project will add 12,000 car trips daily to Mace Blvd., so it will increase traffic, not decrease it as they claim.
Second, the fiscal analysis contains absurd assumptions and inflated projections, resulting in a fairy tale fiscal “benefit”.
Third, while we are experiencing a serious drought and Davis residents will have to cut back on water use to conserve what we can, a large commercial park would significantly draw on our limited water resources.
Fourth, the DiSC housing would be expensive and appealing to I-80 highway commuters. DiSC’s 460 housing units would not alleviate housing need but, instead would create more housing demand for the 2,500 DiSC employees and increase local housing costs. Further, DiSChas no mechanism to assure that any DiSC employee would live on-site, therefore creating even more traffic. The minimal number of “affordable units” will not all be located on-site. In fact, they may not materialize since the developer can opt to pay “in lieu” fees instead. Further, this housing is not geared for family housing. Who wants to raise their kids in a commercial/research park?
Finally, Ramco developers have a history of not dealing fairly with Davis. For instance, years ago they threatened to go through the County, if the City of Davis did not approve Mace Ranch; 2) the Ramos developers wanted to charged the school district a significantly elevated price for the Mace Ranch school site when it was needed; and 3) the most recent, the “bait-and-switch” stunt where the developers originally promised to build a commercial-only DiSC project to focus on revenue. However, they then switched to a mixed-use project shoe-horning in 460 high-density housing units, bringing long-term costs to the city and more housing demand for the 2,500 DiSC employees.
Don’t be fooled, DiSC 2022 is nothing more than a Trojan horse which will not bring benefits, but will bring more long-term detrimental impacts to Davis. Please vote No on H, No on DiSC.
Eileen M. Samitz
Add to this the fact that the business and particularly the technical world is transitioning rapidly to remote work means workers can locate where they can better leverage their assets… Why work remote on the peninsula when you can sell your house, pocket 1 million and spend 1 million in Davis and still work remote? How’s this trend going to create affordable housing or even reasonably affordable home prices.
https://www.axios.com/2022/05/24/millennials-drive-remote-work-push
Posted by: Marc Thomas | May 25, 2022 at 09:10 PM
>> How’s this trend going to create affordable housing or even reasonably affordable home prices. <<
Perhaps the same way that it will solve climate change. :rolleyes:
Posted by: Darell | June 01, 2022 at 05:51 PM