UC Davis planners are tackling the campus population explosion projected over the next few years with a variety of proposals, all designed to enhance the campus community’s residential character.
Over the next few years, the campus will build more residence halls not only to accommodate first-year student demand, but also to provide as many freshmen as possible with a supportive on-campus housing experience, said Pat Kearney, executive director of student housing.
On the table already is expansion of the Segundo housing area for up to 400 first-year students. Three new dormitories in the complex are expected to open in 2003. If the project receives final UC regents’ approval next month, construction will begin next spring.
UC Davis is also looking at expanding the Tercero housing area for up to 500 students by 2005 to accommodate more first-year as well as transfer students.
But after these projects are planned, the campus could switch gears on its housing goals.
After a series of public workshops on the campus’s Long-Range Development Plan, university administrators will arrive at a housing strategy by June 2002. They’ll decide whether to continue building residence halls for first-year students, or plan a village addressing upper-division student housing demand – as well as emerging staff and faculty needs – in an increasingly tight city of Davis market.
"That’s what the Long-Range Development Plan process is for," said Bob Segar, assistant vice chancellor for campus planning, "so that we can test these possibilities for their financial feasibility, environmental effects, political effects, and their contributions to the campus community."
The campus has faced housing challenges before, Kearney said. UC Davis’ student population grew significantly in the 1960s and 1970s, but at the same time the city of Davis was also approving large numbers of apartment complexes, she said.
"What is very different is the very reduced amount of apartment housing (now) being constructed off campus," Kearney said.
By now providing a mix of housing on campus, the university will continue to "attract the best and brightest faculty, staff and students," she said, noting it also keeps the UC Davis campus a lively, interactive hub. With members of the ASUCD, Kearney has even discussed the possibility of offering some affordable housing on campus, a priority of the student government organization.
One option the campus will discuss under the long-range plan is a residential village. The project would combine some of the features of Aggie Village, the privatized home community off First Street built by UC Davis, and the Colleges at LaRue, the privately run apartment complex for upper-division students. It could be built near the Interstate 80/Highway 113 interchange or on nearby land for which the university has recently acquired an option to buy, Segar said.
UC Davis may also consider building student housing near Orchard Park on a four-acre parcel now occupied by greenhouses belonging to the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Segar said. First, the university must determine whether it is financially feasible to move the greenhouses to the campus’s core greenhouse area near the Bowley Science Center west of Hutchison Drive.
Segar said UC Davis’ decision to propose new housing on campus fulfills the campus’ philosophical as well as community interests.
"It’s about keeping people connected to the campus. But it’s also about regional planning and preserving agricultural land," he said.
Some alternatives might allow UC Davis to join with Dixon and Davis and Yolo and Solano counties in maintaining agricultural buffers between local communities here.
Members of the campus community, and the public, can weigh in on UC Davis’ housing options, among other topics, at two planning workshops Tuesday: from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Putah Creek Lodge.
UC Davis students can also offer their input at a workshop designed for them, from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.