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New Agreement for Land Use Protection
Into the 21st Century
By Dave Rosenberg, Yolo County Supervisor, 4th District
It’s rare in life that one gets the opportunity to negotiate an Agreement from both sides of the table. Yet that’s precisely the position in which I found myself. And the result was a “win-win” scenario for both sides. Let me explain.
In 1987, as I was serving as Mayor of the City of Davis, I embarked on what I consider to be the major achievement of my 12 years of service on the Davis City Council. In that year, I played a leading role in creating the Davis Redevelopment Agency and in negotiating an historic agreement between the City of Davis and the County of Yolo. This agreement has become known as the “Pass-Through Agreement” and is absolutely unique in California.
In simple terms, the 1987 Davis-Yolo Pass-Through Agreement provided the city land use protection in exchange for sharing (“passing through”) redevelopment revenue to the county. I am delighted to say that the agreement has worked precisely as planned for the last 14 years. On land outside the Davis City limits, yet within the Davis planning area, the agreement prohibited the county from approving any urban development without the city’s approval. It recognized that urban development in Yolo County ought to occur primarily in cities. It further recognized that economic development ought to be channeled into cities. Yet it also recognized that the county provided numerous important services (such as health and justice services, social services, libraries, and the like) to city residents. And significantly, it recognized the value of protecting agricultural land from urban development. The agreement provided much-needed money to the county in support of the city’s and the county’s recognition of these important principles. There is no other agreement like this in all of California. And it has worked.
Yolo County, when it comes to land use, is quite different than the vast majority of counties in California. Yolo County values agricultural land. In fact, there is a higher percentage of land zoned for farm uses in Yolo County than virtually any other county in the state. It’s a different story in other counties. In Sacramento County, for example, urban uses of county land are common. It’s often hard to tell when one is leaving Sacramento City and entering Sacramento County, except for the color of the street signs.
In 1987 as Mayor of Davis, I was representing the city in negotiating the original Pass-Through agreement. In 2001 I found myself as a Yolo County Supervisor representing the county in negotiating an historic amendment and extension of the Pass-Through agreement. In the years leading up to 2001, there were two concerns expressed about the 1987 agreement. One of these concerns was known to the public, the other was not. The public concern was not with the agreement, itself. Quite to the contrary. The agreement had worked very well since 1987. The concern was that the agreement would expire. By its terms, the 1987 agreement was destined to expire around 2009-10. In several recent campaigns for city council, candidates had expressed concern about the fact that when the agreement expired, the negotiated land use protections would be gone. The other concern was not known to the public, but it was a matter of considerable interest to the Davis City Council and the Yolo County Board of Supervisors which had been discussing in closed sessions a legal dispute regarding the effect of the State’s shift of revenue in the early 1990’s from cities and counties to school districts (the so-called “ERAF shift”). The legal question presented was whether the 1990’s ERAF shift altered the formula for calculating revenue sharing between Davis and Yolo County in the 1987 Pass-Through agreement. The County said it did not; the City said that it did. Literally millions of dollars were at stake. And the legal dispute was destined to head to court for resolution. The dispute came to a head in 1997 and from 1997 through 2001, during intense negotiations, a new deal was hammered out.
The
negotiating team of Ken Wagstaff and Sheryl Freeman (for the city) and
Lois Wolk and myself (for the county), along with key staff members of
both the city and the county took the negatives, and turned them into
positives. Not only was
the legal dispute resolved (the city ultimately acquiesced to the county’s
position on the “effect” of the ERAF shift), but the city
and county agreed to an extension and expansion of the Pass-Through agreement.
I
consider the 2001 amendment and extension of the Pass-Through agreement
to be the major accomplishment, thus far, of my years on the board of
supervisors. The deal we
negotiated (subsequently approved by the city council and the board of
supervisors) took literally dozens of meetings and many years of hard
work, but it is an historic “win-win” for the county and
the city.
What does the 2001 Pass-Through agreement do?
First
of all, it extends for literally another generation, the land use and
farmland protections of the original 1987 agreement. These
protections are extended to 2025! The
county and the city agree that, within the Davis general planning boundaries
outside the Davis City limits, the county will not permit urban developments
without the city’s consent. Those
boundaries, by the way, are large and stretch from the Yolo ByPass in
the east to County Road 97D in the west, from County Road 27 in the north
to a line near Tremont Road in the south. The
city of Davis is well protected from urban encroachments on the surrounding
county land.
Second,
the total tax increment that may be collected by the Davis Redevelopment
Agency is increased from the current $217 million to $350 million. Approximately
27 percent of that total will be “passed through” to Yolo
County, with smaller amounts supporting the Davis Cemetery District and
the Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District. This
revenue sharing of new monies inures to the benefit of both the city
and the county. Through
the extended term of the agreement, some $350 million in new money may
be generated for the city and the county. Of this total, the city (through its redevelopment agency)
will receive $265 million and the county will receive $85 million. For
Yolo County, that’s an increase of $59 million from what the county
would have received if the agreement had not been extended past 2009-10.
Third,
the agreement includes a site for a new South Davis Branch of the Yolo
County Library system. The
City agrees to convey to the county, for one dollar, a parcel of land
in South Davis’ Walnut Park for the construction of a county library
and community room. A new South Davis branch library is a project near
and dear to my heart. Davis
is a very library friendly town. The
agreement lends considerable impetus to the dream of many for another
branch library in Davis. The
construction of a new library and community center in South Davis will
provide a considerable benefit to all residents south of Highway 80,
including El Macero and Willowbank. It
will also be conveniently located for East Davis residents using the
Pole Line over-crossing or new bicycle crossing of Highway 80.
Fourth,
it’s a little-known fact but the parking lot next to the Old Davis
City Hall in downtown Davis is currently owned by the county. Per this agreement, the county will convey that parcel to
the city for one dollar. This
provides the city with a significant downtown space that could be converted
to a use generating property taxes, benefiting downtown Davis as well
as city and county tax coffers.
Fifth, other agreements contained in the extended pass-through agreement include space sharing arrangements between the city and the county in the County's Health and Justice Building (located on A Street in Davis), and an agreement by the city and county to work together to investigate the feasibility of locating property for a firing range for joint public safety functions.
Finally,
the city-county agreement cements the future of Ikeda’s, a popular
country store located at Mace Blvd. near Highway 80. It
permits Ikeda’s to expand to up to 10,000 square feet of retail
and storage space. This
agreement recognizes the new county concept of the “Yolo Store”,
which is envisioned to be the next generation of historic Yolo County “fruit
stands”. The Yolo Store sells primarily Yolo County products and produce. The
agreement between Yolo County and the City of Davis will permit one Yolo
Store (Ikeda’s) to operate up to 10,000 square feet and, perhaps
someday in the future somewhere in the Davis planning area, a second
Yolo Store limited to 5,000 square feet. It
recognizes that while the county eschews urban uses, the Yolo Store is
a use appropriate to an agricultural economy.
The agreements between the City of Davis and the County of Yolo which I helped negotiate in 1987 and then in 2001 will have a total life-span of almost 40 years, roughly covering two generations. The agreements will preserve valuable farmland, will protect the city’s boundaries from urban encroachments, and will provide new sources of revenues to be shared by the city and the county. These are works of which I am very proud. They have served the citizens of Yolo County for the past generation, and will serve the citizens of Yolo County very well for the next generation.