UC Davis has selected its development partner for the first phase of the new West Village neighborhood, a planned mixed-use community that will serve the needs of the campus's students, faculty and staff.

West Village Community Partnership, LLC, is a joint venture of Urban Villages -- Davis, LLC, of Denver and Carmel Partners, Inc. of San Francisco. The West Village partnership is led by Will Fleissig, a former planning director for the city of Boulder, Colo. Fleissig and his partners most recently developed a mixed-use community called Bradburn Village in Westminster, Colo.

"This team has developed some fine examples of mixed-use urban development, similar in scale and form to what is envisioned at West Village," said John Meyer, UC Davis vice chancellor for resource management and planning.

"West Village Community Partnership represents the sort of innovative and experienced leadership that will make the West Village neighborhood an asset to the campus and greater Davis community, and a true model for the region," Meyer added.

"This project also embodies the principles envisioned in SACOG's regional 'Blueprint' project that promotes compact, mixed-use development and a mix of transportation options as an alternative to low density, automobile-dependent development." (SACOG is the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.)

Campus approval enables UC Davis staff to enter into exclusive negotiations with West Village Community Partnership to reach a mutually acceptable agreement to implement the important campus initiative.

"The members of our team are committed to realizing the vision of West Village as a sustainable, affordable and walkable community," said Fleissig.

"We look forward to engaging faculty, staff, and students to help us create a 21st century model for a mixed-use campus community."

West Village Community Partnership's principal urban designers and architects are Moore Ruble Yudell of Santa Monica, CA, and Mogavero Notestine Associates of Sacramento, Calif.

The landscape architects are SWA Group of Sausalito, Calif., and Greenworks P.C. of Portland, Ore. The principal student housing developer is Carmel Partners, and the for-sale home builders are New Urban Builders, Inc., of Chico, Calif., and Pyramid Construction, Inc. of Davis, the local builders of Aggie Village adjacent to the UC Davis campus.

Construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2006 on the utilities to support West Village, which is to be located west of Highway 113 and south of Russell Boulevard. The entire development could ultimately house about 4,350 residents (3,000 students and 500 faculty and staff members and their families) when the final phase of construction is completed by 2015.

The Master Plan for the 224-acre West Village project envisions a vibrant and integrated residential neighborhood of about 1,600 affordable housing units for students, faculty and staff. Among the neighborhood's highlights will be a village square anchored by the Davis Center of the Los Rios Community College District.

The plan also includes a satellite high school for the Davis Unified School District. An elementary school site is also included that would accommodate children expected from the neighborhood.

Those same school facilities also could be used to meet UC Davis needs for classroom and training space.

Residents will be connected to the campus and city via a system of bike trails and frequent Unitrans bus service to the campus. A generous open space network, including recreation fields, ponds, walking paths and bike paths, will be accessible to the public. And many of the single-family homes in the community will also have small cottages -- similar to the campus's Aggie Village project -- to increase the density of the development and provide more student housing options.

Phase One of the West Village project will comprise approximately 117 acres and include approximately 290 rental and for-sale housing units for faculty and staff, apartment housing for about 1,200 students, educational facilities, local-serving commercial uses, and recreational amenities.

The West Village plan was approved by the UC Board of Regents in November 2003.

The campus has established a Web site for the West Village project at http://www.westvillage.ucdavis.edu/.