History of the Grande Neighborhood
Association
Over 25 years ago, the Davis Joint
Unified School
District acquired the 8-acre site on the south
side of Grande to build an elementary school. The school district eventually
determined, however, that the site was too small for an elementary school and
discontinued pursuing that option. The site is one of the assets of the school
district. Over the past few years, the school board has considered developing
the site for additional housing or selling the site for housing. In response to
repeated instances that school board has placed the site on its "closed
session" agenda, several members decided to organize our neighborhood to
stay on top of the issue.
On May 30, 2001, our neighbors convened the first meeting of
the Grande Neighborhood Association (GNA). The GNA was established to allow the
neighbors surrounding Grande
Avenue to have their opinions heard and
communicated to the city—particularly with regard to the vacant Grande lot.
The GNA Steering Committee sent a survey in November 2001 to
all homes in the surrounding neighborhood to determine what the neighbors would
like to have done with the vacant lot. The results of the survey indicated that
the neighbors would like the site to be landscaped and added to the greenbelt
as their first choice. Other popular choices included converting the lot into
community gardens or developing it into a preschool or kindergarten.
The GNA Steering Committee has spent hundreds of hours
researching the legal status of the vacant lot on the south side of Grande Avenue,
assessing alternative uses of the site, meeting the members of the school board
and city council, and holding meetings of the GNA to inform the neighbors of
the steering committee’s progress. The GNA steering committee has determined
that the most likely use of the site is that it will be sold to a developer to
develop the site for housing, in light of the school district’s fiduciary
responsibility to make best use of its assets for the benefit of the school
district, and the housing situation in Davis.
One possibility is to develop the site to provide housing for teachers and/or
city employees.
