November 24, 2005

BP Equities became the sole and final bidder for an exchange of Davis Joint Unified School District-owned property at the school's special board meeting on Tuesday night.

The school board unanimously passed a resolution that waived their rights to reject their Oct. 13 resolution to exchange 8.4 acres of district-owned property located on the south side of Grande Avenue between Catalina Drive and F Street in Davis with BP Equities.

In exchange for the district's waiver, the Oakland-based developer raised its bid for the Grande site by $1 million, school district attorney Jerome Behrens said at the meeting.

Under the new resolution, BP Equities will pay $5.5 million for the Grande site. The development company has 180 days to acquire the Fairfield Elementary school site from UC Davis and exchange it for Grande, school district superintendent David Murphy said. The site is 10 acres located at the northwest corner of Russell Boulevard and County Road 96 currently owned by UC Davis.

If the development company cannot acquire the Fairfield site, then the agreement provides for the exchange of another 10 acres of land in the school district that is mutually agreeable between the district and BP Equities, Murphy said.

"There are still more hurdles to overcome so we will have to see how it works out," said Harry Ohlendorf, a board member of the Grande neighborhood association. He attended Tuesday night's meeting.

The school board's new resolution binds the board, including the three newly elected trustees, to the agreed property exchange with developer BP Equities made on Oct. 13, Murphy said.

New trustees Sheila Allen, Tim Taylor and Gina Daleiden attended the meeting to hear the Grande site decision. Their terms begin in December.

Two additional bidders for the Grande site were part of the board meeting's closed session discussions.

In addition to bidding for the Grande site, developer John Whitcomb and the Parlin Development Company, a Rancho Cordova-based developer, also bid for the district's Wildhorse site.

The Wildhorse site, locally known as Nugget Fields, is 10 acres of land located on Moore Boulevard next to the Sandy Motley Park. If Measure X had passed in Davis, the Covell Village partners would have purchased the land from the school district.

The possible exchange of the Wildhorse site will concern Davis parents, said Betty Pfeifer, a retired teacher from North Davis Elementary School and resident in the Grande area.

"Many kids play soccer on those fields," Pfeifer said.

After board members returned from their closed session, Jim Provenza motioned to rescind the agreement. He expressed concern over the possibility of acquiring the Fairfield school site.

"We don't know for sure if the UC will approve the transaction of selling it to the third property," he said. "The problem is if the university agreement does not go through, then we will have to trade for an unidentified property in far west Davis."

Trustee Joan Sallee said the school board needs to move on from the extremely complex and multilayered issue before the new board members take office in December.

"We have spent so much time discussing this issue and we have enormous knowledge about Grande issue," she said. "It is appropriate for us to move ahead."

Ohlendof, a Grande neighborhood association board member, said that a small group from the neighborhood association met with BP Equities president Brian Purcell to discuss future developments of the property site.

"If the property is going to be developed for housing," Ohlendof said, "then we want to see housing that is compatible the existing neighborhood. We also would like to see a greenbelt and bike paths on the east and west sides of the area."

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