Measure V Gains Democratic Backing as Davis Housing Fight Enters Final Stretch
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
By David Greenwald April 24, 2026
DAVIS, Calif. — Earlier this month, The Yolo County Democratic Party formally endorsed Measure V, lending organized political support to one of the most consequential local ballot fights in recent Davis history as housing affordability, school enrollment and growth policy converge in the June election.
The endorsement was celebrated this week at the home of former Yolo County Supervisor Don Saylor, where elected officials, Democratic activists, project supporters and community members gathered to rally behind the Village Farms proposal.
Speakers argued the measure represents more than a land-use decision, casting it instead as a referendum on whether Davis will make room for younger families, workers and future generations who increasingly find the city financially out of reach.
Measure V asks voters to approve the Village Farms development, a long-debated housing proposal on the city’s edge that supporters say would bring a mix of market-rate and affordable homes, open space preservation, transportation improvements and relief to a strained local housing market.
Saylor, opening the event, tied the current proposal to the failed 2005 Covell Village campaign, calling the new version stronger and more practical.
“We were on the city council in 2005 together when the precursor project, the Covell Village Project — we were able to put that to the voters,” Saylor said. “Unfortunately, that one didn’t pass, but this one, I think really, I think it will pass.”
He added that the updated plan improves on the earlier proposal because “it’s a practical project that will be built and it’s a sustainable affordability.” Saylor said that by including “duplexes, townhouses, and small size starter homes,” the project would provide affordability “for the 50-year life of those buildings.”
The event drew several current and former public officials, including members of the Davis City Council, former school board members and Democratic Party leaders. But the core argument repeated throughout the evening was that Davis’ resistance to growth has carried unintended consequences.
Councilmember Gloria Partida told attendees that while many residents fear becoming another sprawling California city, limiting housing production has reshaped Davis in other ways.
“I think that by constraining growth and by making it impossible to live here, we have also changed the fabric of our community,” Partida said.
She described a city where rising prices have pushed out younger households and reduced socioeconomic diversity.
“We’ve squeezed out small families. We’ve squeezed out diversity,” Partida said. “We’ve squeezed out so much of the things that we have been so desperately trying to hold onto because the only people that can live here are people who can afford the astronomical prices.”
Partida connected the issue to intergenerational continuity, recalling that her grandson attended the same elementary school as his father. That kind of continuity, she warned, is becoming harder to sustain when families can no longer afford to live near one another.
“For us to say to people that this is off limits is, I think that’s wrong,” she said. “That’s not the community that we are.”
Project supporters also emphasized the local roots of the development team. Doug Buzbee said the families behind the proposal have longstanding ties to Davis and a history of shaping neighborhoods in the city.
“This project is a continuation of that vision,” Buzbee said. “It’s brought forward by these families who have been invested in this community for generations, literally generations.”
He said the goal is to create opportunities for younger households to experience family life in Davis the way previous generations had.
“The desire we have is to create opportunities for young families to have this incredible experience of raising families in Davis,” Buzbee said.
Patrick Huber, chair of the city’s Open Space and Habitat Commission, said the site includes a rare alkali vernal pool habitat and a key wildlife corridor. He argued the project would not only preserve those features but improve them through restoration and management.
“If I didn’t care about affordable housing, if I didn’t care about all these other things you’ve heard of, I would still be in support,” Huber said noting that he did care about affordable housing.
He said the project creates an opportunity to leave “the environmental footprint of this site better than how we found it.”
That message reflects a broader strategic shift among some pro-housing advocates, who increasingly argue that environmental protection and housing production need not be in conflict.
Schools were another recurring theme. Former Davis Joint Unified board member Marty West warned that enrollment declines threaten neighborhood campuses and linked that challenge directly to the lack of new family housing.
“When I was on the school board in 2003, we became a declining enrollment district,” West said.
She noted that more than 15% of district students now come through interdistrict transfers and said those transfers are declining.
“So if we don’t build village farms, we’re going to have to close two elementary schools, Patwin and Birch Lane,” West said. “But if we build Village Farms, that will generate over 1,100 students over the next 10 years.”
Whether that projection is realized will be debated during the campaign, but supporters clearly view school stabilization as a central selling point.
The strongest political framing of the night came from Yolo County Democratic Party Chair Jake Whitaker, who said the endorsement followed a formal process in which both supporters and opponents had opportunities to present their cases.
“We gave equal opportunity to both the yes and the no campaigns to present their arguments,” Whitaker said.
He said the final vote was overwhelmingly in favor of endorsement.
Whitaker rejected the idea that Democrats should stay neutral on local land-use fights. Instead, he argued that housing costs and cost of living are among voters’ top concerns and that parties must deliver tangible results rather than abstract messaging.
“What people are looking for is not ideology,” Whitaker said. “They’re looking for results.”
He broadened the argument to national politics, saying Democrats must address affordability if they hope to counter authoritarian currents.
“At the bigger picture level, I think that that’s what the Democratic Party has to focus on in order to effectively turn back the rising tide of fascism in this country, is delivering real results for working people in this country,” Whitaker said.
Turning back to Davis, Whitaker cited local home prices and limited production. He said only 805 new single-family homes had been built in Davis over the last 17 years and that the city’s constraints on growth have intensified housing pressures. Whitaker also personalized the affordability gap by comparing his own experience buying a home in Woodland with what the same property would cost in Davis.
“I’m 32 years old, and I’m very fortunate to be one of the few people that I know in my generation that has been able to attain homeownership,” Whitaker said. “I bought a home in Woodland in 2023 for $470,000. It’s three beds, two baths, little over 1,400 square feet.”
Then he drew a direct comparison to Davis’ housing market.
“If you took that exact same lot with that exact same home and just transplanted it to Davis, it would be selling for about a quarter of a million dollars more than what I paid for it,” Whitaker said. “There’s no way I would have ever been able to afford that.”
He said the disparity illustrates why many younger workers and families are forced to look outside Davis even when they want to remain part of the community.
He said the consequences are already visible: long commutes, teachers and workers priced out of town, and schools relying on transfers to remain viable.
Whitaker described Village Farms as “a thoughtful and community focused answer to those challenges.” He cited plans for 360 permanently affordable homes, additional market-rate units, parkland, habitat protection, conservation easements and transportation improvements.
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