Sprawl

MOST OF THIS MATERIAL IS TAKEN FROM WIKIPEDIA

Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area. Residents of sprawling neighborhoods tend to live in single-family homes and commute by automobile to work. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_sprawl)

Although the Wildhorse Ranch project is somewhat higher density, it is built on the fringe of Davis on land current designated as Ag Land. It is also far away from shopping and work places which invites driving. Most folks who live in the current Wildhorse development are commuters, with Sacramento as the most common destination. It is easy to get on Highway 80 and drive to Sacramento or points east from this development.

Is that really green?

The New Urbanism

Parlin also claims that the Wildhorse Ranch Project has been influenced by the New Urbanism movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanism). According to the Wikipedia: “This movement is strongly influenced by urban design standards prominent before the rise of the automobile and encompasses principles such as traditional neighborhood design (TND) and transit-oriented development (TOD).”

Wiki goes on to state that:

“The organizing body for New Urbanism is the Congress for the New Urbanism, founded in 1993. Its foundational text is the Charter of the New Urbanism, which says:

We advocate the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the following principles: neighborhoods should be diverse in use and population; communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well as the car; cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces and community institutions; urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate, ecology, and building practice.”

Wildhorse Ranch has no workspaces nearby, no shops, and there are few places to walk to. The reality is that everyone will drive.

If the City of Davis wants to follow these concepts we need comprehensive planning designed to reduce impacts on the environment of all types—reducing driving, not building on Ag land if at all possible. Wildhorse Ranch does not measure up on these grounds.