An innovative roadmap for future growth and more than $1 billion in development at the University of California, Davis, including a transit-friendly neighborhood, research park, educational partnerships and new academic buildings, was approved today by the UC Board of Regents.

In a separate action today, the board also approved the financial terms for a new hotel and conference center to be constructed near the south entrance to the UC Davis campus.

The 2003 Long Range Development Plan builds on UC Davis traditions by providing alternative transportation, affordable housing, generous open spaces and preservation of agricultural areas on and off the core campus. The regents' approval concludes a three-year public planning process that was informed by wide community input to determine how UC Davis will accommodate new students, faculty, staff and research activities on the main UC Davis campus through 2015.

"The LRDP describes an exciting vision for the campus -- one that honors our past while providing for our future. Many members of our community, both on campus and from throughout the region, helped to shape this blueprint," said John Meyer, vice chancellor for resource management and planning. "The most rewarding part of this process will be to deliver the many benefits encompassed within the plan that will help improve our campus environment. That work will now begin, and we are very much looking forward to it."

The LRDP will allow UC Davis to meet its obligations to the state of California to accommodate more students, anticipating an average on-campus student population of 30,000 and a total enrollment of 32,000 by 2015, as well as an increase in faculty and staff to support those students. This year, UC Davis expects an annual average of 27,500 students on its main campus and a total enrollment of 30,200.

Under the growth plan, the total on-campus daytime population could grow to a total of about 51,600 through 2015. To accommodate that increase, the LRDP provides flexibility for up to 2.5 million square feet of new academic and administrative buildings. More student housing, athletic and recreation facilities, parking structures, open space and field research areas are also anticipated.

A key component of the growth plan is a 224-acre residential neighborhood that will consist of about 1,600 affordable housing units for students, faculty and staff. The neighborhood, to be located west of Highway 113 and south of Russell Boulevard, could ultimately house about 4,350 residents when completed by 2015. Construction is expected to begin on the first student housing complexes in the winter of 2004-05.

"Our idea is to create an affordable way for people to be part of the Davis community, and to have the amenities that allow us to recruit and retain the best faculty, staff and students," said campus planner Robert Segar. "At the same time, we want to create assets that serve the entire community. We want this community to be a good place to live."

Among the neighborhood's highlights will be a village square anchored by an education center designed to alleviate demand in local schools and create new collaborations. The education complex will include a magnet high school for the Davis Unified School District and classroom space for the Los Rios Community College District. A small elementary school site would accommodate children expected from the neighborhood. Facilities also could be jointly used to meet UC Davis needs for classroom and training space.

Residents will be connected to the campus and city via a system of bike trails and frequent Unitrans bus service to the campus and downtown Davis. A generous open space network, including recreation fields, ponds, walking paths and bike paths, will be open and accessible to the public. And many of the single-family homes in the community will also have small cottages -- increasing the density of the development and providing more student housing options.

Plans for the neighborhood's size were reduced by more than half in response to input from community members, and traffic impacts were reduced with added transit and by limiting vehicle access to campus thoroughfares instead of city streets.

"University people who live there will be within a short bike or bus ride from where they go to school or go to work," Meyer said. "And it will add significant affordable housing to our community."

The transit-friendly environment would extend to the main campus as well, where the LRDP establishes pedestrian and bicycle corridors to move people on and off campus without cars.

In addition to the neighborhood, the LRDP and its accompanying environmental impact report encompass several other major projects, including:

-- A research park at the Old Davis Road interchange at Interstate 80 for partnerships between UC Davis and private, public and nonprofit organizations. The research park will occupy 27 acres of land south of I-80, and another 11 acres of land north of I-80 along the UC Davis arboretum.

The research park concept was approved by campus administrators and faculty in spring of 2000. In February 2002, CarrAmerica Development Inc., a subsidiary of CarrAmerica Realty Corp. (NYSE:CRE), was selected for exclusive negotiations to be the master developer. And last May the campus approved the first two tenancy applications for the development, the Bay-Delta Science Consortium and the U.S. Forest Service Southwest Research Station, both public agencies with frequent research collaborations with UC Davis.

-- A $24-million multi-use stadium complex, which would include an 18,000-seat outdoor stadium facility southwest of the Hutchison Drive and La Rue Road intersection. The stadium is being funded by private contributions and student-approved fees. Final plans for the stadium are scheduled to go before the regents this winter.

-- The $78 million Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, which would provide teaching and research facilities for the departments of Viticulture and Enology, and Food Science and Technology. The complex, to be located to the west of the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, will include a 129,600-square-foot academic building with research and teaching labs, a 41,000-square-foot teaching winery, and a food-processing facility, teaching labs and brewery consisting of 27,000 square feet.

The Mondavi Institute is funded in part by gifts, including $25 million from Robert Mondavi and $5 million from the Anheuser-Busch Foundation. In April, the Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership (ZGF) of Portland was selected as architect for the institute. Design plans will be brought before the Board of Regents for approval this winter.

The regents today also approved the lease terms that will allow UC Davis to partner with the University Hospitality Group of Davis to finance, build, own and operate the conference center and 75-room hotel planned for the campus. The principals in University Hospitality Group are B.B. Patel and Ashok Patel, who own and operate a number of hotels and motels in northern California, including the Crown Plaza Cabana Hotel and Conference Center in Palo Alto and the Best Western Palm Court, the Aggie Inn and the University Park Inn in Davis.

The approximately $22 million hotel and conference center will be located near the I-80 entry to UC Davis, to the east of the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. The complex will include a 75,000-square-foot conference facility with meeting space for 500; a ballroom, restaurant and pub; and a 40,000-square-foot hotel with 75 guest rooms, scaled back from 150 guest rooms in response to community concerns about possible negative impacts.

The 2003 Long Range Development Plan and accompanying documents are available online at http://www.ormp.ucdavis.edu/environreview/lrdp.html.