The university has released a fiscal impact report on its proposed new residential neighborhood and the cost of providing public services such as police, fire and street maintenance to the neighborhood.

The campus is considering developing a 224-acre residential neighborhood on a site west of State Route 113 and south of Russell Boulevard. The neighborhood would consist of about 1,600 units for students, faculty and staff and include recreation fields, a community education center, commercial services and an elementary school facility. It could house about 4,350 residents.

The report, prepared by the Goodwin Con-sulting Group in Sac-ramento, analyzed two scenarios for providing public services to the neighborhood. One scenario assumes the project is annexed and served by the city of Davis. The second scenario assumes no an-nexation and that the campus would provide essential services.

"This is a starting point for discussions among officials from the university, city of Davis and Yolo County," said Karl Mohr, who is managing the project for the Office of Resource Management and Planning. "Although finances are a key issue, it is only one of many relating to how the neighborhood should be served."

If the city annexes and provides services to the neighborhood, the report says, the combined net gain to the county and city would be $91,000. That figure represents the difference between the costs of public services provided to the new neighborhood and the amount in property taxes and other revenues that would be raised upon annexation.

However, looked at individually, the city would experience a net loss of about $336,000 while the county would generate a net gain of about $428,000.

As a result, the report states, "cooperative actions taken between the city and county could result in a break-even fiscal impact for each of the two agencies."

Due to Davis' high cost of living and low rental vacancy rates the university has made new housing a priority. It also is planning for additional student housing on campus.

Mohr said one of the driving principles behind the new neighborhood design is making sure it "stands alone financially" and does not constitute a financial burden on the university, city or county. The question for planners is finding the right balance between revenues and costs associated with residential neighborhoods that must have access to resources for police, fire, safety, public works, and health and human services.

As the report mentions, "A new development project creates the demand for a variety of new facilities and services from the local governing agencies. In order for development to pay its own way, a multitude of funding sources and mechanisms are implemented to raise revenues for the required facilities and services, including developer mitigation fees, property taxes, service charges, annual fee assessments, special taxes and more."

Community participation

Beyond finances, Mohr says, other issues surrounding the question of annexation involve quality-of-life issues. Annexation, for example, would give residents the right to vote in Davis elections and the ability to participate in community recreational programs.

For the city, annexation would enable more direct involvement in the neighborhood's development, consistency with city standards, possible fair-share housing credits and greater property and sales tax revenues.

As for the university, the report notes that "UC Davis experiences little or no fiscal impact from the project under the annexed scenario."

Mohr says, "If the city and county find the other reasons to annex the project to be compelling, the analysis indicates there is enough revenue to keep the city and county whole."

The non-annexation scenario

On the other hand, if the city does not annex the new neighborhood, the university would be looking at net costs of $1,560,000 to provide services to the site.

Mohr said those costs translate to about $950 annually per unit in the new neighborhood, which would likely have to be assessed in some form. The university does not receive the tax or fee revenue sources that the city and county does, and therefore its costs of providing services are not offset. In fact, its revenues are estimated at "zero" in the report.

One example of prior collaboration is the university-owned Aggie Village neighborhood along First Street. Working with the university, the city annexed the 37-unit site several years ago and agreed to allow the campus to provide police and parking services while it provided all the rest.

Mohr stressed the neighborhood must pay its own way for public services, noting, "This neighborhood project will not take away campus funds for educational and instructional purposes."

Goodwin Consulting Group worked closely with university, county and city financial experts to examine projected revenues and expenses for the proposed neighborhood and interviewed city, county and university officials about service costs. It also based fiscal impacts on the cost per person in each jurisdiction.

Growth needs

UC Davis is midway through the final year of a three-year effort to update its Long Range Development Plan -- a campus land-use plan for handling new students, faculty, staff and facilities through 2015-16. UC Davis, like other UC campuses, will experience a large student and employee influx known as Tidal Wave II, which by 2015 will add an estimated 5,130 new students and 2,500 new faculty and staff above the 2001-02 academic year totals.

The LRDP is based on feedback from campus committees, UC Davis leadership team members and previous public meetings held during the past two years. The plan and an accompanying environmental impact review are expected to be submitted to the UC regents to be considered for approval in the fall of 2003.

In response to comments regarding the previous long-range plan's neighborhood alternatives, UC Davis prepared the more compact, 224-acre alternative for the proposed residential neighborhood, which is reduced from prior plans of 380 and 260 acres.