The Village Homes Subdivision in Davis: Origins and Evolution of "A Better Place to Live"

Village Homes is a seventy-acre, 245-residential-unit subdivision in Davis, California, built in 1975–1983. It challenged various American subdivision norms while championing energy efficiency and solar systems; on-site groundwater recharge; mingled residential and agricultural uses; off-street paths for walking and cycling and reduced space for automobiles; shared semi-private open spaces to nurture neighborhood interaction; housing stock that varied in size, tenure, and cost to foster social diversity; a village center with businesses and community services; and a strong sense of place. All this was made possible by supportive contexts ranging in scale from individual actors, local politics in college town Davis, California's, long history as a place sympathetic to "the search for the ideal," California's environmental leadership, and national and international events, chiefly the 1970s' oil crises. Forty years later, nearly all original features of Village Homes remain intact, with the clearest exception being affordable housing, the loss of which has occurred across Davis and much of California. Its environmental and social design features have diffused to various extents to other developments in Davis and beyond, but no other subdivision in America has the same package, which reflects a particular place and time. Creating a denser version of Village Homes is a desirable goal.