Regents approve UC Davis' West Village project - Sacramento Business Journal:

Sacramento Business Journal - November 17, 2006
http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2006/11/13/daily63.html

Business News - Local News
Regents approve UC Davis' West Village project
Sacramento Business Journal - 11:29 AM PST Friday

The University of California Board of Regents approved the first phase of UC Davis' West Village, a 120-acre commercial and residential development just west of the main campus.

The first phase of the high-profile development will include commercial space; a branch campus of the Los Rios Community College District; a magnet high school for the Davis Joint Unified High School District; and faculty, staff and student housing.

The first phase will have 312 single-family homes and townhomes for faculty and staff, and apartments for almost 2,000 students. Ground-floor commercial space is also part of the first phase.

"We will now be better able to provide the opportunity for our faculty, staff and students to live adjacent to where they study and work, and to participate more fully in the range of campus life that makes Davis unique," said UC Davis chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, who presented the project to the regents. "

The West Village project covers 208 acres overall, all of the land is currently in agricultural production. Construction on the project could start this summer.

The two-phase development -- just west of Highway 113, between Hutchison Drive on the south and Russell Boulevard on the north -- will feature 475 housing units for faculty and staff, and student housing for 3,000. Many of the faculty housing will come with small cottages, similar to the 32-unit Aggie Village next to campus. About 45,000 square feet of commercial space is planed for the project.

Community leaders and university officials say West Village will help attract -- and keep -- faculty and staff, who are often priced out of the Davis housing market. "The single biggest deterrent in attracting high-caliber faculty is the cost of housing," Pat Turner, former interim dean of the College of Letter and Science at UC Davis, said in an 11-minute video that detailed the project to the regents.

West Village home prices are expected to be about 30 percent lower than comparable homes in Davis, according to the university's Office of Resource Management and Planning.

The university's development partners in the project are Urban Villages-Davis of Denver and Carmel Partners of San Francisco. A general contractor has not been chosen.

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