Willowgrove (Davis Measure W)
Davis Eastside's 1,250-home Willowgrove project on 232 acres north of East Covell Boulevard needs a citywide vote under the city's Measure J requirement.
1,250 homes
How a building dies in California
The same handful of tools show up in case after case. Here they are in the order they usually arrive, drawn on the kind of sheet a planning department would see.
A building is proposed
A developer files plans for an apartment building on a parking lot near transit: 200 homes, 16 floors. The land is zoned for it and the drawings are complete.
In the database: 4224 Jefferson Avenue, Woodside, 105 homes.
The review begins
Design review, environmental review, letters calling the application incomplete. Each round takes months and each can be restarted. A city that wants to wait never has to say no.
In the database: 125 S. Linden Drive, Beverly Hills, "incomplete" since 2022.
The building shrinks
A height limit, a downzoning, a compromise with the neighbors. Sixteen floors become six. The homes that vanish here are never counted; the project is still officially alive.
In the database: Woodside's SB 9 program, 328 homes.
The vote
If the council approves anyway, opponents can force a referendum or sue under the state's environmental law. Either one takes a year. Neither has to win to work.
In the database: Village Farms, Davis, 1,800 homes, denied.
The lot stays empty
Years pass and loan costs mount. The developer walks away or settles for a fraction of the plan. Nobody is recorded as having said no.
In the database: 52 cases, 95,011 homes, $487 million in delay.