Downtown Davis Specific Plan

A Sustainable Path to Net-Zero

Farr Associates was engaged by lead consultant Opticos Design to assist in consolidating the City of Davis’ plans, many of which touched upon sustainability aspirations but also included contradictions and lacked clear implementation strategies.

The focus was on guiding the City towards steps that were realistic and would result in actionable change. Specific topics included a 2040 carbon neutral downtown, microgrid feasibility, and the electrification of all fuel-dependent downtown transportation. The plan was adopted in February 2023.

Ten “Sustainability Themes” were created by two sustainability focus groups that met during the first and second Downtown Plan Community Design Charrettes. The team also used the Sustainability Implementation Matrix prepared by the consultant team as a resource, but attempted to prioritize the many ideas into cohesive recommendations. Many of the recommendations focus on energy and carbon reduction to supplement work of the consultant team in other areas of sustainability.

The ten theme areas discussed, in no particular order, were:

• Social Equity

• Economic Development

• Quality of Life

• Energy

• Education

• Mobility

• Water

• Waste

• Food

• Living Landscape