Our local anti-growth ordinance, known as “Measure J” was crafted under environmental pretexts to prevent urban sprawl and preserve open space. It was marketed to voters as a form of direct citizen control over the city’s growth in 2000 and was subsequently renewed in 2010 (as measure R) and 2020 ( as Measure D).
The aims of “Measure J” are in-line with the character of our city, our shared environmental values and the general feeling that we want to maintain our ‘college town’ feel, and that we don’t want to become a sprawling city in the model of Natomas, or Elk Grove etc.
This does seem to be a point of consensus in Davis to this day: Nobody in Davis that we have talked to “wants sprawl”. And to that extent, Measure J has been a resounding success: it has slowed down the pattern of sprawling development that is the status quo in the rest of northern America.
Mitigation, not prevention
Now let’s be clear: “Sprawl” and “Building mostly single family housing” are one and the same. Davis made the mistake of letting single family housing dominate our development pattern for three generations. Even the famous Village Homes development is textbook urban sprawl. It isn’t bad to have single family housing, but it is bad to have “mostly” single family housing… and in Davis, that is exactly what we are…