First came the initial planning concepts, then the preliminary planning scenario and now a revision called the draft planning scenario — all this the result of a year and a half of planning and community feedback, leaving one year to go in UC Davis’ update of the campus’s Long-Range Development Plan.

The draft planning scenario will be posted online on Wednesday (Sept. 21), campus planners said.

The revision assumes a more complex urban development character that connects people and celebrates open space, while maintaining capacity to accommodate 90 percent of enrollment growth and 40 percent of overall student enrollment in campus housing by 2027-28. Notable changes from last spring include revised plans for Russell Field, Solano Gateway and south campus.

Campus Planning and Community Resources will host a series of outreach events during the first week of October to gather more feedback from the community (see box for details).

The UC Davis LRDP update also will undergo environmental review over the next year prior to being presented to the UC Board of Regents in the fall of 2017. The regents will consider whether to formally adopt the LRDP, to replace the LRDP dated 2003.

Here’s a rundown of the most significant changes for the evolving guide to campus growth:

Russell Field

The revised plan reduces the proposed number of students living in the Russell Field neighborhood from 1,000 to 400, designating only the portion of Russell Field immediately north of the Marya Welch Tennis Center, along with Parking Lot 14 and the Cowell Building along California Avenue, as possible redevelopment sites for student housing with academic programs on the ground floor. The plan retains the full east-west dimension of Russell Field between California Avenue and Howard Way as a large open space for campus recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics, as well as other campus functions.

With a reduced footprint for student housing, the plan retains Howard Field in its entirety and a significant portion of Russell Field for ongoing recreation rather than the previously contemplated student housing proposal. This is made possible by redeveloping a surface parking lot and a low-density, one-story building — although the displaced programs and parking inventory would need to be accommodated within other areas of campus.

Solano Gateway

The revised plan increases the net number of new students living in the Solano Gateway neighborhood from 500 to 1,100, designating areas south of the arboretum — the environmental horticulture complex of buildings, Parking Lots 5 and 5A, and the Solano Park Apartments — as potential redevelopment sites for student housing.

Residents and academic programs would be accommodated elsewhere on campus prior to any redevelopment. 

In the next 10 years, planners say, both the Solano Park Apartments and the environmental horticulture buildings will require significant investment. Specific planning for the redevelopment of the Solano Park Apartments will begin after detailed planning for the now vacant Orchard Park Apartments, the other campus housing area serving student families and graduate students, is underway.

While retaining a generous open space network, the redevelopment of the Solano Park Apartments may accommodate more students than current occupancy.

The plan realigns Old Davis Road between the Hyatt Place hotel and the arboretum to capture more land within the campus loop road and therefore integrate student housing with other academic programs in the campus core. The plan retains Nelson Hall and Wyatt Pavilion as important features within the neighborhood.

Nishi Gateway Project

The revised plan does not include a possible road connection from campus into the Nishi property. This revision reflects the recent decision by Davis voters to reject the Nishi development proposal.

South campus

The revised plan includes another potential development site, immediately south of Interstate 80 and west of Old Davis Road, for academic and administrative programs in the south campus.

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