21 hours Ago By By Rebecca Wasik, Enterprise staff writer
In its first meeting of 2025, the Davis City Council designated a new mayor and vice mayor for the calendar year. Bapu Vaitla of District 1 will serve as mayor while Donna Neville of District 3 will serve as vice mayor. Vaitla served as vice mayor in 2024, while Josh Chapman served as mayor.
This decision passed 4-0-1 with Neville abstaining from the vote. The council did discuss that the process of the council choosing its own mayor and vice mayor is a bit confusing. City Manager Mike Webb says staff will return to the council with more information on how to better streamline this process.
Vaitla suggested possibly using the terms “chair” and “vice chair” as opposed to “mayor” and “vice mayor.” According to Davis municipal code, the mayor serves as the official head of the city for ceremonial purposes, presides at council meetings and performs other duties as prescribed by ordinance or imposed by the council consistent with the office. The mayor serves a one-year term and a councilmember may serve as mayor no more than twice per a four-year council term.
The vice mayor performs the duties of the mayor if the mayor is absent or unable to perform essential functions. Unanimously approved by the council was a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a professional services agreement contract with Raimi+Associates, Inc. for the preparation of the 2025 General Plan Update.
The city will not be starting from scratch but will be using the existing 2001 General Plan as a basis for beginning the update process. City commissions will be a key part of the update process. Six of these commissions will lead in the development of an element of the General Plan.
The city will also appoint a General Plan Committee (GPC) made up of two representatives from each of the six participating commissions to serve as a way to pass information to council. The contract value for the General Plan Update is $2,184,919. Staff says there is approximately $900,000 available for this purpose, with more revenues coming in.
“It is designed to be a two to three year process with the third year including the preparation of the Environmental Impact Report,” said Davis Community Development Director Sherri Metzker. Metzker did mention that the final year’s EIR document contract was not a part of Tuesday night’s discussion. She said there are still many details to iron out pertaining to the General Plan update.
This item was simply about having the city manager sign the contract to begin the process. Council member Neville expressed high praise for the contract with Raimi+Associates, Inc., stating its specificity and no “mushy jargon.
” Council also asked that a subcommittee be formed by the Planning Commission now to be ready for the work on land use once it is ready and for the GPC to be formed now as well. Approved 4-1, with Council member Linda Deos voting ‘no’, was the setting of in-lieu fees for standard inclusionary multi-family rental housing projects at $250,000, with on-site fractional units being half of this fee, or $125,000. In October 2024, the council directed city staff to develop guidelines for alternatives to applicants meeting the default inclusionary requirement for low income and very low income housing units.
Alternatives discussed by the council in October included in-lieu fees, land dedication, rehabilitation/conversion of existing offsite units into affordable units, ongoing revenue sharing/revenue stream and a combination of these alternatives. Staff recommended two options for in-lieu fee payments for non-discretionary projects: a one-time payment and a multi-year payment. Proposed guidelines for discretionary projects included: Applicant makes case as to why they can’t meet 15% affordability requirement Applicant proposed alternatives(s) to city for consideration City staff and Social Services Commission review and provide recommendation Recommend both in-lieu payment options the same as non-discretionary projects List additional options such as: land dedication, rehabilitation/conversion of existing offsite units into affordable units, ongoing revenue sharing/revenue stream A fractional unit is any portion of a unit that is less than one whole unit.
Staff proposed that fractional units be paid in a proportional amount of the per unit in-lieu fee. A in-lieu fee amount of $608,000 was recommended to council based on the total cost to build an affordable unit in Davis. Staff estimates the costs of recent market rental projects in Davis to average around $250,000 per unit, including value of the land.
“This fee is intended to be adopted now and then updated with the city’s master fee schedule annually, with updates based on the California Construction Cost Increase each July 1,” reads the staff report. “This will ensure the fee stays relevant to market costs and conditions.” Council expressed the feeling that the $608,000 figure was too high.
Local developer Doug Buzbee, who spoke during public comment, agreed. Although this resolution would not affect the type of housing he develops, Buzbee said it would likely lessen competition for him. Yet as a local who is in favor of affordable housing, he was not in favor of the number.
“I believe that an impact fee of $608,000 would be destructive to the development of new housing in Davis, which I believe will contribute to high housing costs, housing insecurity and ultimately, greater homelessness,” remarked Buzbee. Council member Josh Chapman said he had “sticker shock” when he saw the price tag. “I’m not a developer,” said Chapman.
“When we talked about coming back with this in-lieu fee, I had zero idea that it was $608,000 to build an affordable unit and that’s on me.” Council member Gloria Partida suggested an in-lieu fee of $250,000 while Vaitla suggested $369,000. Webb suggested that staff could come back in a month with a lower in-lieu fee amount, scaling options and more information, but after much discussion, the council decided to choose an amount during the meeting.
After the $369,000 fee failed to pass 2-3, the $250,000 fee did pass 4-1. The Davis City Council will next meet on Jan. 21.
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