The Cannery

The entrance in April 2016.

The Farm House in April 2016.

Some of the homes built by April 2016.

As of April 2016, construction is still ongoing.

Also see: Covell Village

The proposed Cannery Park development is a planned mixed-use development that would occupy the former Hunt Wesson Plant cannery facilities site.

Originally, developer Lewis Planned Communities, who purchased the land in 2004, presented the project at two public meetings on June 29, 2006 and July 19, 2006 before formally submitting the proposal to the city on 2007-12-20. In March 2009, Lewis unexpectedly withdrew their proposal calling the project economically unfeasible. Members of the City Council discussed the reason for the withdrawal at their 2009-03-17 meeting.

Illustrative Land Use Plan as of 5/9/2013 ConAgra, who acquired the business assets of Hunt Wesson in 1990, resubmitted a prior Lewis development proposal as part of a new application to the city on September 7, 2010. On October 25, 2010, the Davis City Council directed staff to proceed with processing of the Cannery application with additional direction that the business park be approximately 20 acres.

On February 28, 2011 the City of Davis and ConAgra Foods hosted a land use planning update meeting with the community gathered to listen and respond. Since then the project has been reviewed by 10 city commissions to provide feedback to the development team and make formal recommendations to the city’s planning commission and city council.

The 2006 plans for the project included "100 acres, approximately 600 homes, 11 acres of office, a retail center, parks, open space, as well as "semi-public" land for churches, nursing homes, community centers, etc."

Information from the developer’s website (http://TheCanneryDavis.com/) shows they envision the reuse of its 100-acre canning site as an "An innovative, mixed-use, multi-generational neighborhood which will bring homes, businesses, and parks together in a sustainable manner."

The plan now includes approximately:

• 547 homes,
• a 7.4-acre working urban farm,
• nearly 30 acres of parks and open space,
• a Market Hall anchoring up to 172,000 square feet of commercial space.

Construction of the self-stated "low-impact, low-emission" neighborhood would take approximately 3 years, with a variety of new home choices in each phase. However, given that many homes will be located towards the north end of the property, with no way to exit but the south end, this is hardly a neighborhood from which the rest of Davis could be easily accessed (and it's not particularly close to anything). Most residents would probably drive, thus calling into question how "low-impact, low-emission" the neighborhood would be.

On 2006-06-30, The Davis Enterprise reported that most homes for the previous project would be priced from $350,000 to $450,000. As of April 22, 2016, the available pricing information is that townhomes will be around $450,000 to $550,000 and houses will be $700,000 to more than $1 million.

The redevelopment of the former industrial site is inside the city limits and is not subject to Measure J/Measure R, meaning it could be approved by the City Council without a binding vote by the public. Public hearings for certification of the completed Environmental Impact Review and entitlement approvals by the Davis City Council are anticipated to take place in late summer/early fall 2013. If the Council approves it, the zoning will need to be changed; it is currently zoned for "light industrial." Former Councilmember Sue Greenwald argued that the loss of an opportunity to build an industrial park in this location would put greater pressure to build one outside of Davis's current borders, creating sprawl.

Sign at the entrance during Fall 2007

2014-09-10 01:12:49   I just looked at the plan for this development that is on this page. I am no city planner, but this looks like a huge problem. It appears that the front part of the development will be businesses—the pink buildings. There are really only two main avenues into the residential part, one directly through the commercial area, and a second on the right side (east side). This seems like a really bad idea, because every single resident who is leaving the development or coming home will have to pass through one narrow road. Seems like a huge potential bottleneck to me, especially considering all the people backed up on Covell trying to turn left (coming down from the RR overpass). Is this a big problem waiting to happen, or perhaps I'm missing something...? —EricJensen

Footnotes

1. St. John, Claire. "Lewis Cans Davis Project." The Davis Enterprise. 2009-03-19
2. Lee, Crystal. "Cannery Park Proposal is Back" The Davis Enterprise. 2010-10-24

2015-10-25 11:18:23   The cost of housing in this new development is well beyond the means of most starting at $750,000. Also, their they only have white people on their website. Clearly, this development is geared toward out-of-towners as the average university employee or other Davis resident can't afford to live here. Also, no first-time home buyer incentives that I can see. —lnelmdiwife