Commentary: Why I changed my mind on Village Farms

By Bapu Vaitla, Special to The Enterprise. May 4, 2026

I was not an easy vote for Village Farms, and I think it’s useful for Davis voters to know why.

At the Jan.14 City Council workshop, I voted no on Village Farms's affordable housing proposal. I was worried that the developers weren’t offering sufficient resources to actually get affordable units built. I’ve seen many well-intentioned “affordable housing plans” fall apart. The developers and I had fierce arguments, both privately and publicly. But, to their credit, the Village Farms team was willing to keep negotiating.

In the end, the developer made a commitment to affordable housing that’s unprecedented for Davis. Village Farms is giving its affordable housing partners 16 acres of land improved with streets, sidewalks, and utilities, as well as $6 million toward construction. Those resources will go towards building 280 affordable units for low-income households, as well as 80 moderate-income for-sale homes.

But here’s the real win. If for any reason the affordable housing partners are unable to construct those units — for example, because of inflationary pressures or inability to find matching grants — the responsibility for building at least 100 units falls to the Village Farms development team. In fact, Village Farms won’t be able to obtain their final set of building permits — permits for large-lot homes that are a major chunk of their expected profit—until construction of those affordable homes is underway.

Best of all, this commitment can’t be changed: it will be contained within the ballot measure we vote on in June. That’s a different level of accountability than anything we’ve had before. At a time when getting any housing built is challenging, this is a good deal for Davis.

In addition, our community and City Council pushed Village Farms for much more. We pushed for over 1000 smaller lots and starter homes instead of an enclave of McMansions. We pushed for conserving nearly 50 acres of biologically valuable habitat on the project site. We pushed for climate-resilient features, including transfer of Village Farms’ electricity infrastructure to a public utility (should we get one established in time!) and a commitment to buy carbon offsets locally when available. Village Farms agreed to all this — and went further. They dedicated more than half of the development’s acreage to parks, greenbelts, habitat, playfields, and urban agriculture.

They designed an all-electric neighborhood with a great electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Village Farms is a good fit for our community.

And this vote matters beyond the project itself. The people who teach our children, care for our sick, cook our food, and keep our city running can’t afford to live in Davis. People who grew up here and want to start their own families here can’t afford to stay. We bus in students from other towns to keep our schools from closing because the students’ families can’t afford to live here.

Eleven thousand UC Davis employees commute into town, in part because Davis lacks housing.

We can do better. If we want our economy and our schools to thrive, we will do better.

For those of us who feel that climate change is the world’s most pressing challenge, supporting compact, transit-linked, net-zero housing is the most powerful step we can take to leave a better future for the generations to come. Measure J/R/D was born from a legitimate impulse to stop sprawl, which is a real harm to both people and environment. But pushing families out of Davis means more commuters, more emissions, and more traffic. There is a reasonable middle way: supporting well-designed developments like Village Farms.

Critics of Village Farms will say we moved too fast, gave away too much, or accepted too few affordable housing units. I spent months wrestling with these questions. The project that will appear on our June ballot is substantively better than what was first proposed — because this community fought for it to be. It includes enforceable affordable housing commitments. It includes smaller lots and attainable homeownership for first-time buyers and working families. It includes conserved farmland, unique habitat, and a climate-resilient neighborhood design.

Village Farms is not perfect. Few housing developments are. But it is more than good enough, and we owe the people who have been waiting to live here—people who love Davis, work here, and contribute every day to our community—a chance to be neighbors.

Join me in voting yes on Village Farms.

— Bapu Vaitla is a Davis City Council member