photo by Karin Higgins, UC Davis

West Village is a campus neighborhood located on UC Davis land adjacent to the core campus in Davis, California. It is a mixed-use community that will eventually include student housing, single family homes, retail, and recreation facilities as well as a community college, the Sacramento City College Davis Center, which is part of the Los Rios Community College District. It is designed to enable faculty, staff and students to live near campus, take advantage of transportation options, and participate in campus life.

The development and implementation of UC Davis West Village is a collaboration between the university and a private developer, West Village Community Partnership LLC (WVCP), led by Carmel Partners of San Francisco with their joint venture partner Urban Villages of Denver, Colorado. The total Phase 1 cost is around $280 million, of which UC Davis invested approximately $17 million to bring utilities and infrastructure to the site. The university will recoup this investment through a surcharge placed on resident utility bills.

Students and staff began moving in to The Ramble and Viridian apartments in August 2011. Model single-family homes are scheduled to open in Spring 2012 and home sales will also begin in 2012.

September 2011 move-in dates were delayed and residents were compensated with stays at the Hilton, Visa gift cards or free TV's. Construction is still taking place as of 11/2/2011

Website: http://westvillage.ucdavis.edu Map location: http://campusmap.ucdavis.edu/?l=811 Theory: "Technological Optimism"

Please Note: The Ramble Apartments and The Viridian are not part of UC Davis Student Housing.

Apartments

The Ramble Apartments - Undergraduate Students The Viridian - Graduate students, Faculty and Staff

Businesses

To be announced.

Other Services

Sacramento City College Davis Center

History

The West Village Master Plan was approved by the UC Regents in November, 2003. Land use map of Phase 1 can be viewed here.

The West Davis Neighbors organization sued to stop the project. After the suit was dismissed the first time, the group appealed in 2005 with the same result. Because of the Neighbors opposition, there is no direct connection with Russell Boulevard for the development, and it is much less likely for the new Westlake Market to have customers from there.

In November 2006, the Regents approved the business terms of the ground lease with West Village Community Partners and gave the go-ahead for the first phase of UC Davis' West Village to begin.

In August 2008, UC Davis and its development partner, West Village Community Partnership LLC (developers from San Francisco and Denver), signed the ground lease, clearing the way for the design and construction phase of West Village 1. In December, the 113 Orchard was cut down and large pipes were installed underground, presumably as infrastructure for the development.

Groundbreaking for the project took place in August, 2009, amid some fanfare.

Media

Photos

Village Square viewed from balcony of Viridian apartment, October 2011 Interior of Ramble apartment, October 2011. Photo courtesy of Carmel Partners, Inc. Roundabout for West Village, November 2009, looking West on Hutchison Roundabout for West Village, November 2009, looking North from Hutchison

Comments:

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2005-07-05 02:09:14   This was the project that had somebody shoving somebody else at a public meeting at Emerson Junior High School. —NickSchmalenberger

2008-05-30 00:33:32   I can't seem to find a projected date of completion: does this mean that it's too early to tell, or is it just that they don't want anyone to know? —JoePomidor

2008-05-30 01:48:57   From a 12/19/2007 UC Davis News Service article: "The university is proceeding with plans to build 343 single-family homes and town homes for faculty and staff, and apartment housing for up to 1,980 students in phase one of its West Village development. Groundbreaking for the site, which is west of Highway 113 between Hutchison Drive and Russell Boulevard, is planned for 2008, and the first occupancy could be in late 2009." That sounds extremely optimistic to me, but this is the most recent update I can find online.

—JeremyOgul

2008-05-30 13:29:33   If this project is like any of the other University construction projects, it's about 2-3 years off on its completion date. —JamesSchwab

2009-08-06 21:27:54   From http://westvillage.ucdavis.edu:

When will the new homes be finished?

We anticipate that model homes will be completed in late 2011 or early 2012.

Mr Schwab was right on it seems.

—ARWENNHOLD

2009-08-06 21:35:43   If I had a decent camera I'd take some pictures of the construction. The roundabouts on Hutchinson are well under construction. Its worth a look for someone with a good camera and some free time. —ARWENNHOLD

2010-04-26 17:05:20   The roundabouts are now complete and most of the arterial streets are paved. Construction of real buildings can't be far off! —ARWENNHOLD

2010-10-02 20:19:13   Just curious to see if anyone has any new info to add. I haven't been around to see the progress since June but I imagine buildings are going up now. —ARWENNHOLD

2011-03-01 09:44:33   They are now advertising apartments through their leasing office downtown and on this website: http://www.ucdaviswestvillage.com/ —IAmNewHere

2011-05-07 03:24:08   Rent ranges from 1840/month for 2br/2ba to 2970/month for 4br/4ba. Utilities + internet included, parking an extra $20/month per spot. —TimJ

2011-09-29 20:21:47   Ok so I live in West Village and I need to rant. It is great place to live and all but it all seems like a bit of green wash to me. If they wanted a sustainable community why didn't they look at Village Homes or the Domes for inspiration? The gardens are not very well thought out in terms of water usage and plant diversity. I appreciate that it is probably reclaimed water but that doesn't mean water plants with automatic sprinklers for several hours at a time and in the hottest part of the day (to the point where the grass areas are soggy to walk, and the paths get more water than the plants do). They have mulch in some areas around plants but then not in others, where it could definitely use it. I would have LOVED it if they planted some productive trees around the place and in fact I was thinking about doing some guerrilla gardening around the place - just some perennial herbs maybe. This is something that should've been factored into their ‘sustainable’ design concept to begin with. I understand that it is completely solar powered but why do ground lights around the trees need to be on 24 hours a day? Also, when we moved in, they didn't provide recycling bins even though it seems to me that almost all of peoples waste when they are moving is cardboard boxes and other recyclables. They still haven't really provided recycling bins, someone just sticky taped some cardboard on the front of 2 bins that says "recycling", probably because of how much cardboard was being thrown in the 4 general waste bins they have provided. Just something that bothers me… I would like to see composting as well if we are going to pretend to be sustainable, green and cutting edge. There is already a ton of infrastructure in Davis for it. It just feels very corporate to me and I wish that maybe some of the environmental design departments or something at UC Davis had more involvement in the project. There are a lot of positives about West Village. 24 hour gym and study area, a swimming pool, spa, sand volleyball court, game area, wireless internet. It’s expensive, but everything is included. The staff are super nice and helpful. The apartment is really nice but you can tell they rushed it a bit. There is still some construction going on and they start really early in the morning and sometimes work until super late at night. The apartment was dirty when I moved in, there are a few scratches on the floor, etc. as if the construction workers don’t have a clean up crew. I appreciate the effort and concept but it could be taken a few steps further. I don’t want to be too harsh on them because it is just getting off the ground and they are still getting organized but my hope is that they will start to take these things into consideration because they have a lot to live up to. I’ll certainly be doing my part to make them act more “sustainable”.

—ConsciousConsumer

2011-10-02 23:20:59   Ok, so a little follow up. I noticed that some of the sprinklers around my apartment were on around 12pm today and wasn't so bothered by it until I went for a walk to the study/computer area at around 11pm (don't get me started with the people printing 100 pages at a time, leaving no ink or paper for anyone else) and the sprinklers were still on! The trees they were watering were flooded and much of the water was flowing into the gutter. I mentioned before that I'm sure much of it is reclaimed water but it is just unnecessary. I found the tap and turned it off anyway, which I've done before when water was flooding the carpark, and I'll continue to do it. I want to speak to the person responsible for the garden but haven't spotted them yet. Otherwise, I want to repeat that they are great apartments, I love living here and I'm at least glad that something like this is being built. Hopefully it becomes mainstream and it only gets better with time. —ConsciousConsumer

Did anyone go to the pep rally seriously? what a waste of rent money again! Everything was a disappointment. LIke only 20 people showed up and there was Gunrock shooting free West Village "Swag"/T-shirts into the grand stands. I saw everything- it was quite elaborate. They got food catered from the Davis Grad, cotton candy, popcorn, a jumping house, huge big balloons (those half dome thingys), grand stands, Gunrock, the UCD dance/cheer teams. Wow, they must have spent like $10,000 or more on the entire event. I saw ENTIRE boxes of foam fingers just sitting there, unused. Even the raffle tickets were elaborate. Not the ordinary roll chunk of raffle tickets. It was high quality full color glossy 4x4 index cards. It was quite ridiculous. Those cost like $1.50 to print each. And also not to mention all the Viridian key chains and pens they were giving out. I guess the Viridian isnt selling so well, with its $1800 rents and such. I don't know where the West Village team is getting these silly ideas...wow..why cant they put their energy into solving our internet and other miscellaneous problems, instead of planning these stupid parties that no one goes to. They also spent money on a full half page AD in The Aggie.

  • They could put the money they spend on stuff into reducing rents for students. I saw someone mention they are offering free rent for the rest of 2011 on craigslist for the Ramble. They must be desperate. - OS
  • That sounded unlikely (especially since the Ramble is fully rented), so I checked. There's no such posting on Craigslist. There's also no posting at all on Craigslist for Veridian, although I keep hearing that Veridian is only about 40% occupied. However, I don't know if that number is accurate. —IDoNotExist
  • This ad from uloop advertises 2 months (or the rest of 2011) of free rent for Viridian: http://ucdavis.uloop.com/housing/view.php/3847433/958-2br-1095-sqft-Viridian-Apartments —argyle
  • Ahhh...OK. I'd read the statement above as *free rent*, not free for two months. :-) I think they've been offering 2 months free at Veridian for quite a while, as they haven't been able to fill the complex at the rates they've been charging.
  • My bad for the poor wording. I thought it would have been strange to have adds on craigslist. Uloop makes more sense I guess - OS

2012-01-05 22:44:18   Anybody else have outlets failing all over the place? I'm down 4 at last count... —ConsciousConsumer

2012-04-16 12:21:30   I really like living here, however I kind of just moved in because it was one of the only places close to campus that still had places up for lease without a waiting list. I really love the gym, it's not too crowded around 7 at night or early in the morning, which is nice. It's also great because you don't have to go all the way to the ARC and there's a vending machine and RedBox like DVD rental machine inside the gym. I had a maintainance issue that was addressed almost immediately.

My only issue is the high rent. I understand, it's a pretty fancy place and I wouldn't mind paying $700 for one of the two bedrooms, but $986 is way too much, especially for an undergrad. On top of that, expecting to pay for parking is even worse. Several apartments in the area, like the Colleges, etc have free parking for their Residents. Also since their parking lot is relatively empty, I don't think offering free parking would be that much of a hindrance. I would really like to renew, but alas I'm not due to the expensive rent which none of my friends are willing to pay. —DeeptiNallapaneni

2012-08-31 20:16:15   After a year of living in West Village, the best way to sum up its current state is that it's all style and no substance. In other words: eyecandy. It's hard to imagine how businesses could ever be viable in such an isolated community.

I can't wait to check out the model single family homes (they ought to be really nice), whenever they get built... then I'll gawk at their price tags and joke about how (talented) UC Davis staff and faculty will never be able to afford them. —Roarasaurus

2013-02-03 12:17:14   This Sac Bee article pretty much sums up my incredibly negative experience with the West Village Apartments http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/02/5159639/west-village-complex-has-yet-to.html —AnnaV

  • I see two references to this page in the article... interesting that the SacBee acknowledges the existence of the Davis Wiki when the Enterprise won't. I guess what would be even better would be if West Village would read the page and make improvements! —cp

2013-09-03 06:06:09   Don't move in here! Avoid horrible experiences. No wonder Sacramento Bee states "Despite those luxuries, West Village has had a hard time keeping tenants, with about 50 percent of them declining to renew their leases in 2012, not including those who graduated. Citywide, the average renewal rate is closer to 70 percent" The luxuries are only on the surface. The front door broke immediately after moving in and took the maintenance a few months before they replaced it and the new one did not even work well. Though the building just finished last year(2012), the paint are peeling off in many area and the floor is fading in addition to the window was installed wrong and it could never be shut. The worst of of all, the management is mean and deceptive. They try to squeeze extra money out of you in any way possible even if it is illegal. They advertised and assured us that the one bedroom of the 2 bedroom unit to be $776 per month including the utility and collected the deposit in June, but they waited till close to the move in time before they actually showed the rental agreement with the rent amount of $ 963. When I questioned about it, they explained that they will give 1 month free rent and $550 concession. I pointed out that it is still way more than they said it will be per month. Then they changed their story saying that there will be one and half month rent credit and $ 800 concession, but there will be fee for amortize these specials. I told them it does not need to be amortized. Then they tried to charge extra for getting 3rd floor unit when we did not ask for it. They assigned us the unit without asking our preference.( They say they cannot honor any preference.) I pointed out that being on the 3rd floor is more troublesome for moving as we have to carry furniture up and down the stairs as they don't have elevators. They insisted it was better because of the privacy and insisted on charging extra for it. I never heard of 3rd floor extra charge. How ridiculous can they get? Of course we decided not to renew the lease and deducted the holding deposit from the last month rent. They charged us $ 75 as late fee for not paying the full rent amount threatening legal action, though the rental agreement does not state the holding deposit becomes security deposit. When we asked to have an extra day as a new apartment is not available till September 1st, they utterly refused saying the inspection is to be done at 7 am on that day and they had to do the work before new tenants moved in. ( They did not let us move in till September 12th though they counted the full 30 days of September as rental days.) As we had no other choice, we moved out in the morning of September 1st. Nobody came till 10 am and it was no problem as there were a lot of other apartments to inspect. Now they are charging us $96( 3 X daily rental amount) for being half a day late moving out though the rental agreement does not state the penalty. I know it is illegal to charge rent from two different people for the same place during the same time period. They also charge $ 265 per year to park your car there and they only have very limited 2 hour parking spaces for guests. There are no street parking space available nearby, either. The apartment buildings are designed poorly and it is long walk from any parking space to apartment units and it is real pain to move in and out, especially on the 3rd floor. Buses to UC come only every half hour during weekdays and every hour on weekend and during Summer, tough they told us it comes every 15 minutes.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/02/5159639/west-village-complex-has-yet-to.html#storylink=cpy —CindyNakano

Footnotes

1. UC Davis News & Information "University, Developer Sign Ground Lease for West Village" 2008-09-05

2015-09-08 17:33:43   I lived at Solstice for two years then moved out due to the fact that I couldn't afford the rent for the upcoming year (I'm sorry, but charging $45 a month for UNASSIGNED, UNCOVERED parking... no. Just no). We got charged not only a third floor premium, but a premium for vaulted ceilings as well, which is double dipping if you ask me. The icing on the cake was when I was gone for the summer on an internship (and took my car with me) yet still had to pay for parking (remember, unassigned) because it's "part of the rent". It's more like an extended stay hotel then an actual living space. All the services are included, so if that's your top priority then you're golden. Utilities and internet included, printing is free, gym and pool, washer and dryer in unit, great community center. And the employees that work there are super nice, I'll give them that. But the designer/contractor really rushed on the construction and cut corners on furnishings, and it shows. Barely any closet/cabinet space. All of the furniture is super uncomfortable (the provided desk chair gave me such horrible back pain that I had to buy my own). The pipe that connected to the AC unit in my building was routed INTO MY BATHTUB so that during the summertime it dripped all day and night and slowly drove me bonkers (and at three separate points in time it got clogged and started dripping orange shit into my bathtub!) Also, if you're moving out, please take note: management has been doing some dubious stuff with the security deposit refunds. Out of the original $150 security deposit, I was given back $45-- $55 was deducted for mandatory carpet cleaning and $50 was deducted for "other" cleaning expenses (which, I might add, were not itemized in any way). And this was per resident! My roommates and I were all super clean, and additionally cleaned everything before moving out, yet we still each got charged the cleaning fee. I emailed management asking for an itemized explanation of the cleaning costs, and rather than providing an explanation they refunded the $50. I'm thinking that they charge everyone the $50 cleaning fee, regardless of the status upon move out, and only refund if challenged. —pianoplunkster

2016-03-05 00:12:15   Horrendous customer service and it's the worst management team I've ever seen !!! I paid $40(online application fee) + $150(holding deposit) when I applied for this apartment (Ramble) on the first day. Everything was smooth on that day (Of course! They just want your money) and the manger, Terry told me that he would send me the lease document via the resident portal website but I've NEVER received any document since that day and I kept checking the website and my email inbox during the first few days. Few days later, the manager (Terry) emailed me saying that I have to pay higher deposit of $2,148USD because I am an international student. Actually I was fine with it but then I realized that I did have SSN, so I emailed back asking him if I could provide my SSN to waive the extra deposit. As you can imagine, he didn't answer my question. I kept sending several emails to him but I got no response at all! Fine! I decided to go the lease office at West Village and tried to meet the manager in person. However, the staff at front desk told me that Terry was in a meeting blah blah blah so he could meet me and then asked me to leave my contact info and they'll call me back or email me sth like that. Again!! I DIDN'T GET ANY EMAIL/CALL AFTERWARD!!!! I went there serval times and everytime I got the same answer!! So basically they don't care about your question, not to mention I am not their resident yet and I never will be! Seems like after they sensed that I wanted to pay less, then they simply ignored me. I was told that I could't get back the $150 holding deposit because the timeframe of getting the refund was over. AVOID THIS APARTMENT!!! —VirtualFunction

2016-09-07 04:34:04   For anyone wondering if employees write their reviews, I noticed a gleaming 5 star review by 'Farzin S.' from 3/5/2015 on Yelp at the top of the second page. Someone named Farzin Shargh is an assistant to the leasing manager at West Village. —smiling

2016-09-27 16:38:46   TLDNR: place is crooked. random people will consistently park in the spot you paid for and it will be your personal responsibility to contact the police and towing company. cheap but surprisingly heavy light fixtures will fall on your head. your pipes will burst and your apartment will smell like sludge. management will ignore your calls. you will be charged for broken light fixtures and pipes. don't live here. the nicest part of the apartments is looking at them from outside. as in, the nicest part of the apartments is not being in them. long version: i am a tenure-track professor at davis. over my 2 decades in academia and dozen-some-odd apartments in both hemispheres, i have never dealt with a more incompetent or dishonest lessor. i moved to the viridian in 2015. the viridian advertises itself as housing for faculty and staff. i did not meet a single member of the faculty or staff. not one. i met exactly one law student exactly two times. in the elevator. everyone who lived in my building was between 18 and 20. this wouldn't be a problem if the residence advertised itself as an undergraduate dorm. but it didn't. imagine how mortified i was to find that i had moved, not into faculty housing as advertised, but in with hundreds of undergraduates. my colleagues thought i was some kind of faculty residence advisor. so did the students in my classes. i was too embarrassed to tell either groups that i had been misled into living in a dorm. i am married. my wife was an O4 on active duty. she got to visit me in a dorm. a fancy-looking dorm. but a dorm. potential residents beware: your lease will state "X dollars per month" and provide the lease term as september 15 to september 1. it will unambiguously give a PER MONTH rate. it will unambiguously provide move-in and move-out dates that amount to a period of residence of 11.5 months. management will unambiguously steal hundreds of dollars from you by charging you for 12 months of rent. the reviews on yelp suggest that every person who moves out is overcharged this half a month of rent. every person. a back-of -the-envelop calculation (1000 move outs per year, 1000 dollars in illegal rent per move out) suggests that students have been fleeced out of MILLIONS of dollars over the past few years. in addition to west village's systemic institutionalization of theft, i had these specific problems with my residence: 1. a light fixture fell from the ceiling and on to my head within a few hours of my move in. the fixture's anchors in the ceiling were broken. gravity and my skull further damaged it. not only were my several emails to management and calls to the front desk not returned quickly. they were not returned at all. i kept the cracked fixture on my kitchen table. i was charged for breaking it. 2. after about seven months, the plastic u-trap under the kitchen sink burst. it spilled stinky sludge. the sink was inoperable. i washed dishes in the bathroom and ate out of containers. my emails and calls were ignored. i was charged for plumbing. 3. i returned my keys as per instructed. i confirmed with an employee that i put my keys in the right place. i was charged 60.00 for lost keys. 4. i throughly cleaned the apartment, including the shit that leaked into my kitchen from the never-fixed u-trap. i was still charged 220 dollars for "trash removal." i left no trash whatsoever in the apartment. 5. i paid 600 dollars for a year of "reserved parking." i regularly came home to find strangers parked in my spot. when i contacted management, an employee told me that the complex was not responsible for monitoring the parking lot. the parking addendum clearly states that west village was responsible for surveilling the lot and contacting UCPD and towing services to assure that residents could park in the spots for which residents pay. i had to call for a towing company several times just so i could park and go to sleep in my own bed. 6. i was "warned" that i was using too much energy and threatened with additional fees. this happened a few times, and always during vacation periods when i was NOT IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. the apartment was vacant, all electronics unplugged, and the lights/ac/fan off. the owners must have bet that if they defrauded everybody, nobody would have a reason to complain. this is a private business using a public contract to steal from students. it is unconscionable, and i intend to bring a report of these practices to UCD's academic senate and UC's general council. your light fixtures will fall from the ceiling and crack you in the head. then you will be charged for the pleasure. pipes will burst. your parking spot will be occupied. strange smelly turgid water will come out of a plastic pipe in the wall of your shower and into your bathtub. management will not respond to your service requests. you will be over-charged by hundreds of dollars and nevertheless not get what you overpaid for. seriously. don't come. —adammnky

  • water in that condition is "turbid" not "turgid" --that was probably the laundry overflow air-gap pipe for the upstairs unit-- and I am sorry you had such a consistently negative experience.  -JudithTruman

 

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