With two commissioners absent, the Davis Planning Commission voted 3-2 Wednesday to recommend that a small city greenbelt and the former home of a local pioneer family be split into eight parcels for development.

The development, called Paso Fino subdivision, would include eight homes on a 0.75-acre plot inside the Wildhorse subdivision between Sargent Court on the east and Whistler Court on the west, bounded by Moore Boulevard to the north and Covell Boulevard to the south.

The property currently serves as a city-maintained greenbelt on the west and east sides, with the Haussler ranchette in the center. The city is in the process of negotiating the sale of the greenbelt to the developer.

Paso Fino seeks to replace the Haussler ranchette property, where a number of Canary Island pine trees form a line along the eastern side. A Swainson’s hawk lives in one of the trees.

City planning staff put forward four options regarding the trees’ future in the staff report, but commissioners were urged by staff to choose among three options: recommend nothing, cut down all the trees or pick an alternative plan that saves, according to the hefty staff report, four to seven of nine Canary Island pines.

However, the trees would be guaranteed to be saved only for five years as part of a deed restriction that affected homeowners would sign. Then, it would be up to homeowners to decide their fate.

The developers, local father-and-son team David and Jason Taormino, said the trees are magnificent enough that they doubted homeowners would get rid of them. However, the staff report notes, “cleanup may become a nuisance for private homeowners.”

The City Council approved a development of four homes on the Haussler property and surrounding greenbelts in 2009 with another developer, but staff said the project did not come to fruition during the recession.

The Taorminos promised top-flight universal design in the homes, similar to the standards applied in The Cannery development that recently broke ground farther west on Covell Boulevard.

The developers pointed to city policies promoting infill and the city’s previous approval of a development on the property. David Taormino said it would be his 12th infill project in the city and every time he does an infill project, the same issues are debated with neighbors: open space preservation and density, among others.

“We debate those issues as if there were no policies in place,” he said.

About a dozen neighbors disagreed, expressing dismay over the fact that the city would sell a greenbelt for development in the first place.

Claudia Morain, a neighbor on Sargent Court, said she would approve of four homes, but not eight.

“How is that possible?” she said. “The city doesn’t sell greenbelts to developers.”

Morain said she doubted there were proper policies in place on what to do when the city is selling greenbelts.

Travie Westlund criticized the 20-foot-wide street proposed by the developers and wondered how garbage collection, moving vans and delivery trucks would operate if there is no cul-de-sac bulb for them to turn around in.

“How do you turn around?” he said. “There are no sidewalks. This doesn’t fit the characteristics of Wildhorse. I just think there’s a much better plan.”

Developers pointed to sidewalks in their plan, but didn’t seem to address garbage collection and delivery trucks, saying they were working with Davis Waste Removal to figure out how garbage would be collected.

Davis attorney Paul Boylan, representing the Morain family, questioned whether the project is really infill and said the process is moving too fast. He asked the commission to consider the litigation risks involved.

Commissioners asked specific questions about the street configuration and traffic flow, demanding to know the dimensions and reasoning behind the 20-foot space with cut-outs for parked cars in front of  every house.

Planning staff read a report from the city’s traffic engineer stating that the number of vehicles coming in and out of the development and affecting nearby streets would be normal.

Jason Taormino said the center of the street is just wide enough that the Fire Department’s requirements were met for a 20-foot space. He also disputed Westlund’s claim that there are no sidewalks.

Commissioner Cheryl Essex criticized the street plan, saying delivery trucks would have to back out and vehicles would have conflicts with pedestrians and bicyclists using the street as a shared path.

She also doubted the project is infill.

“We don’t have policies in the city for selling greenbelts because we don’t sell greenbelts,” she said.

Vice Chairwoman Marilee Hanson agreed.

“No one envisioned that the City Council would start selling the greenbelt,” she said. “These (neighbors), if you put them together, they have invested millions of dollars in this community. … There’s lot of units being approved in this town; we don’t need to be selling greenbelts. The fact that this is not a public process is disturbing.”

But Commissioners George Hague, David Inns and Mark Braly were generally impressed with the developer’s proposal and voted to recommend the proposal.

Hague complimented the Taorminos on designing homes where residents could “age in place.” Some homes also feature mother-in-law units.

Inns said it would be wasteful of land to develop only four units there because the lot sizes would be too large for the area.

“It just doesn’t feel like it’s unreasonable,” he said. “I also feel like the developer has some right to develop their property. … We’re going to have to do infill if we’re not going to expand beyond our city borders.”

Commissioners Hermann Boschken and Rob Hoffman, chairman, were absent.

— Reach Dave Ryan at [email protected] or 530-747-8057. Follow him on Twitter at @davewritesnews

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