Davis Diamonds Gymnastics could be forced to move to Dixon if the City Council decides Tuesday that the gym’s bid to move into a vacant car dealership in South Davis doesn’t fit the city’s economic plan.

At least that’s what co-owner James Major fears as the decision date nears. Major has run the gymnastics company on Second Street in Davis for more than nine years with his wife Hilde.

“You like to ride your bike to work and you like the university town aspect,” Major said. “It would be really sad to leave. I grew up in this town. I grew up on E Street.”

Major said the business has outgrown its current home and the car dealership — with its open space and high ceilings — would provide a great opportunity to expand.

“It would double the square footage that we have,” Major said. “There’s a lot of programs that we have, like a trampoline class that we couldn’t do now, that we’d be able to do.

“We need more equipment and need more space around it, we don’t have the space for (the gymnasts) to land safely.”

In December, the Planning Commission voted 5-1 to deny Davis Diamonds’ application for a conditional use permit. Commissioners cited a need to protect limited auto mall zoning space in Davis, as the city depends heavily on automobile sales tax revenue.

The conditional use permit would have granted Davis Diamonds and a medical technology marketing company called The MarkeTech Group the opportunity to move onto the property, a former Ford dealership on Chiles Road, and transform it into facilities that would suit both of their needs.

The plan called for Davis Diamonds to renovate and move into the dealership building and MarkeTech to build a new office on the opposite side of the property, splitting the parcel into two.

After the commission’s decision, Davis Diamonds and MarkeTech appealed the matter to the City Council.

However, the council, like the Planning Commission, must grapple with the fact that Davis’ budget depends to a great extent on tax revenue generated by automobile sales.

According to the city, between March 2010 and March 2011, automobile sales in Davis generated about $1.1 million in tax revenue.

On one hand, City Councilman Dan Wolk said he believes that sacrificing the needs of kids for the sake of sales tax revenue is a tough sell.

“I certainly understand the argument that we should save this location for an automobile dealer,” Wolk wrote in an email. “Such activity brings vital revenue for city services.

“At the same time, however, this particular spot has been essentially vacant for a number of years, the current lessee is struggling to find a tenant. Davis Diamonds’ partnership with The MarkeTech Group would bring a very exciting incubation hub to this location, and there is a the very real possibility of Davis Diamonds leaving our community should this opportunity fall through.”

But Mayor Joe Krovoza said placing Davis Diamonds on Chiles Road may not fit with the city’s overall planning strategy.

“There are two big competing themes,” Krovoza said. “Davis has a long history of very strong land-use planning and putting appropriate uses clustered together. In part, that’s what makes Davis wonderful: The schools and parks are coordinated, the houses and the shopping, and it makes it all bike-friendly, makes the drives shorter.

“The proposal does run counter to Davis land-use principles. The council is clearly going to give lots of weight to the Planning Commission’s near unanimity in respecting land use.”

Davis Diamonds enrolls about 1,000 students each year and has a long waiting list, Major said. Should the gymnastics company earn the conditional use permit, it could admit more students into its programs.

The current facility covers about 9,000 square feet and the dealership would be closer to 20,000.

If the council rules against Davis Diamonds, Major has a backup plan. His real estate broker has found an old grocery store in Dixon that would provide the space and the height the gymnastics company needs to operate.

“If we have to move to Dixon, we’d have to change our business model,” Major said. “It’s not local anymore. We’d have to make a program that would draw from all cities around the region, but we would really have to work on that and make that aspect a lot more important.”

Major said he has considered other sites in Davis, including the empty DISC building down the street from his current gym, but he said the rent is more than Davis Diamonds can afford.

— Reach Tom Sakash at [email protected] or (530) 747-8057. Follow him on Twitter @TomSakash

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Haylee Aquino, 7, gets some coaching tips from James Major during a workout in December at Davis Diamonds Gymnastics. Major hopes to move his business to a larger building that used to house a car dealership. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo

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