As it reaches an important milestone, a project to build a community college branch in a residential and commercial development at the University of California, Davis -- a first for a UC campus -- is being heralded as a demonstration of deepening educational partnerships for the benefit of students.

The project with the Los Rios Community College District will move forward after a ground lease with the Sacramento-area college district was approved Thursday at a meeting of the UC Board of Regents on the Davis campus.

The Los Rios district plans to build 60,000 square feet of classroom and office space to house the district's Davis Center, which is a branch of Sacramento City College.

Replacing the existing college center in South Davis, the new facility will front the village square of UC Davis' West Village, a 208-acre development at the southwest corner of Highway 113 and Russell Boulevard. The UC Davis development calls for commercial spaces with residential quarters, sites for a public high school and a preschool, and housing for an estimated 4,350 people by 2025.

'Initiative of great significance'

"This is an initiative of great significance to the state, the university and the local community," said Rory Hume, provost and executive vice president for academic and health affairs for the UC system. "The University of California has a rich history of collaboration with the community colleges, and increasing the opportunity for transfer of students from the colleges to the university is a mutual objective of our two systems."

"The proposal to build the first community college center directly on a UC campus is a very real manifestation of our shared commitment to serving the students of California," Hume added.

The college district's plan for West Village calls for phased construction of three buildings of 20,000 square feet each -- altogether more than six times the size of its current leased facilities in South Davis.

Financing would come from a bond measure approved by the district's voters in 2002, and from state bond money. Under the terms of the deal, the community college district would pay its own construction costs at West Village, and contribute the equivalent of $4.5 million for land preparation and utility extensions. The ground lease fee would be $1 a year for 65 years, with the possibility of a 10-year extension.

A history of partnership

"This is a natural product of a decades-long partnership with the Los Rios Community College District," UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef said in an earlier interview. "We've worked well together, and this advantage of propinquity will make this fine relationship even better."

In the 2006-07 academic year, Los Rios' Davis Center filled some 3,500 seats with UC Davis students in skills classes in English, mathematics and chemistry. UC Davis students also enroll at the community college for courses not available at the university -- instruction in the Farsi language, for example.

Los Rios Chancellor Brice Harris joined Vanderhoef in noting the "very long and successful relationship" between their schools -- a relationship that includes the agreement under which Sacramento City College instructors since 1993 have led English writing composition classes for incoming UC Davis students.

"This is an elegant division of labor," Harris said. Instruction in writing composition is a core program of the community college, he explained, and by freeing UC Davis of the responsibility to teach basic writing, the university can attend to its "deeper mission."

Education at core of West Village

UC Davis and Los Rios officials said the new Davis Center will provide even more opportunity for collaboration, not only for UC students who attend classes at the center, but for the thousands of non-UC Davis students who take courses at the Davis Center.

A Board of Regents briefing paper declares: "We are very hopeful that the facility will be a key part of efforts to increase our transfer rates from community colleges."

"The very core of West Village is education," said Mary Hayakawa, executive director of Real Estate Services for UC Davis, referring to the university's goal of building affordable housing -- at least for Davis -- where faculty, staff and students can live in close proximity to the main campus.

"This isn't just a subdivision," she said. "Our hope is to establish a vibrant and diverse community."

While residency generally will be limited to people affiliated with UC Davis, the community college center and West Village's commercial enterprises and recreation facilities will be open to all.

Other negotiations continue

Campus officials are still in negotiations with the West Village Community Partnership, the private developer that the university picked to develop the bulk of West Village, including its housing stock and commercial spaces.

West Village comprises two phases resulting in 500 housing units for faculty and staff, and student housing for 3,000 when completed.

University officials say West Village homes for faculty and staff will be priced about 30 percent below market value for similar homes in Davis. That benefit is expected to be a key in recruiting and retaining top talent to UC Davis, officials say.

Groundbreaking is planned for next year, and the first occupancy could be in late 2009.

About Los Rios Community College District

The Los Rios Community College District is a two-year public college district serving about 86,000 students in the greater Sacramento region. It includes American River, Cosumnes River, Folsom Lake, and Sacramento City colleges; major centers in Placerville, Davis, West Sacramento, downtown Sacramento, Natomas and Rancho Cordova; and special services for business and industry. The college prepares students to transfer to a four-year college or university, and it awards associate degrees and certificates in more than 70 career fields.