Background
On May 9, 2023, the Board of Supervisors approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Davis (County Agreement No. 23-82). The purpose of the MOU is to abate wildfire risk and potential threats to public safety, as well as coordinate the transfer of the subject parcels to the City of Davis for ownership and maintenance. The MOU is provided as Attachment A to this staff report.
The North Fork of Putah Creek (also referred to as “Old Putah Creek”) runs along a greenbelt that traverses through the City of Davis, as well as the Willowbank County Service Area. This channel requires regular maintenance to reduce fuel load along its banks, which back into many backyards. The area of City/County discussions is the portion of this channel that lies between Drummond Avenue and Mace Boulevard. A map is provided as Attachment B to this staff report. The County owns the following parcels in the subject area and desires to dedicate the parcels to the City of Davis. The City maintains the channel of North Fork Putah Creek for the conveyance of storm water. The City has also constructed a bike path along the north bank and a pedestrian bridge across the channel that connects the City's San Marino Park on the north side of the channel with Rosario Street on the south side of the channel. A map showing the current ownership of the parcels in question is provided as Attachment C. This map is a result of the County's legal survey of the area for the quitclaim deeds included as Attachment E and the acreages listed below have been updated since the MOU was approved to reflect the survey descriptions.
Yolo County North Fork Putah Creek Parcels
| APN |
Official Records of Yolo County |
Acres |
| 069-230-007; 069-230-008 |
829 OR 346; 806 OR 262 |
2.450 |
| 069-180-008 |
806 OR 111 |
0.283 |
| 069-100-001 |
989 OR 72 |
2.979 |
| 069-150-019 |
806 OR 48 |
0.003 |
| 069-100-005 |
811 OR 440 |
0.635 |
| 069-100-009 |
806 OR 437 |
0.714 |
| 069-100-010 |
810 OR 650 |
1.894 |
| Total |
|
8.958 acres |
Status of MOU Commitments
The County and City agreed in February 2018 that some sort of property transfer, or long-term maintenance agreement, was needed to ensure maintenance for public safety (fire, injury from dead trees, etc.). A process was agreed to by the City and County, as set forth in the attached MOU, which included:
- Formal legal survey of the parcels to determine public/private ownership (Complete)
- Record of Survey filed with County Recorder (Complete)
- City to review survey and perform field inspections to provide County documentation of any appurtenances (fencing, drainage pipes, etc.) that may be of concern to the City (Complete)
- County/City would work together to remediate/remove concerns (Complete)
- County to quit claim parcels to City (Pending approval of this item)
Requested Action
As noted above, the sole remaining commitment from the MOU is for the County to quit claim the listed parcels to the City of Davis. The quit claim package is provided as Attachment E to this staff report. Included in the quit claim package are quit claims of County drainage easements on the following City of Davis parcels: APN Nos. 069-100-004 (805 OR 571) and 069-230-020 (807 OR 427). Should the Board approve the recommended action, the quit claims will be executed by the Chair and notarized, then sent to the City of Davis for formal acceptance and execution. Finally, the quit claims will be recorded with the County Recorder, thus completing the property transfers. Therefore, staff recommends that the Board of Supervisors:
- Adopt a resolution (Attachment D) declaring that the subject parcels are exempt surplus property (as required by recent amendments to the Surplus Land Act), which has been reviewed by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and
- Authorize the Chair to execute quitclaim deeds (Attachment E), and delegate authority to the Director of Public Works to undertake any other necessary actions to complete the property transfers to the City of Davis.
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