UC Davis Aggie Square Project Battles Gentrification Concerns
- Sarah Klearman
- Mar 14, 2021
- 5 min read
Surrounded by farmland, the small city of Davis has long been a fitting setting for its namesake University of California campus, which, among other things, is known as one of the top agricultural and veterinary universities in the world. But even UC Davis has urban ambitions: The university is moving forward with Aggie Square, the university’s billion-dollar innovation hub set to break ground at its Sacramento campus in 2021. In the process, UC Davis is getting a lesson in the challenges of urban development.
The $1.1 billion project was approved by the University of California Board of Regents in November of last year, clearing the way for construction to begin in 2021 on its first phase – four buildings to include lab, research, classroom and retail space as well as student housing.
University officials and local elected leaders say the project, which has two construction phases, will be a catalyst for revitalization of both the adjacent UC Davis Medical Center and Oak Park, the surrounding Sacramento neighborhood. But Oak Park residents have sued, reflecting their concern about the project’s potential impact to neighboring Oak Park. At the same time, the university has committed to a novel use of revenue from an enhanced infrastructure financing district to provide affordable housing.
Many of the neighborhood’s residents are low income, people of color and renters, advocates said, and could be displaced or otherwise harmed by the demand for housing in the area likely to be caused by Aggie Square.
In early January, Sacramento Investment Without Displacement (SIWD), a coalition of community organizations, filed the first of the two CEQA suits against the project. Their primary concern is displacement of Oak Park residents, according to SIWD Board Member Matthew Baker.
“If the affordability of housing in proximity to the project isn’t addressed, then all of those other benefits will go to new residents,” Baker said.
The second suit, also based on CEQA, was filed not long afterward by AFSCME Local 3299, a service and patient care technical workers’ union, to seek an injunction on the project over job-outsourcing concerns and potential impact on surrounding communities, where many of its members live.
