The General Plan – How Clean and Green?

By Pamela Posey

The efforts of the City Council, Planning Staff and Commissioners need to be applauded for the daunting task of developing a comprehensive plan to guide Chico through the next 20 years. Also to be applauded is their stance on being aggressive about smart growth and taking pressure off building in the outlying areas. However, there are still concerns regarding sprawl and impacts on the environment that need to be addressed. Another concern to be considered is what we are leaving or not leaving for future generations. Is the General Plan really a "clean and green" document?

One concern is attaining Goal CIRC-9 which is to reduce congestion and increase the use of alternatives to single occupant vehicles. The City has a goal to reduce citywide greenhouse gas emissions 25% by 2020. Studies have shown that autos are already causing 54% of citywide emissions. The proposed South (Entler) and East (Doe Mill/Honey Run Special Planning Area, SPA) Chico developments with 2,000 + homes and retail/commercial centers would be built far from the urban core, with an historic average of 10 trips per day to town per unit, which will severely impact these goals and plans. Building in outlying areas will produce millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions, increase already congested thruways on Bruce Road, E. 20th Street, the Skyway and Highway 99, and limit the opportunities for city employees and other commuters to use modes of transportation other than single-occupant vehicles. Chico does not meet current state and federal air quality standards, and these developments would only make it more difficult to do so. Chico should follow the goals of the General Plan and maintain a compact, urban form.

The second concern is the Fiscal Impacts on city services for these developments. The city's share of property taxes is not currently sufficient to pay for necessary services such as police, fire, public works and infrastructure, and these developments will only stretch these services thinner and reduce overall service to all. Developer fees, alone, will not support these developments. The actual growth rate for Chico, minus annexation, has been only 1% for the past year. Question: is this an anomaly or is this the trend for the future? Currently, there are 3,000 units already entitled, hundreds of homes are in foreclosure, there are two malls that are struggling, the downtown has numerous empty storefronts, and there are blighted neighborhoods that qualify for redevelopment funds. The perceived need for new development could be readily accommodated with urban infill and redevelopment. This would eliminate the need for the increase of new developments, new roads, and infrastructure while improving the development and maintenance of existing infrastructure and neighborhoods. Do we really want to sacrifice the noble goals of infill, neighborhood improvement, redevelopment, and internal infrastructure in the new General Plan for sprawling developments into sensitive foothill and creek habitats?

This is a call to write your Chico City Council members about your concerns regarding sprawl into the sensitive foothills that are the eastern border of Chico. Our foothills are the backdrop of Chico providing the view shed we all love, habitat for savannahs and imperiled oak woodlands, groundwater recharge, and Butte Creek, the home of the endangered spring–run Chinook salmon. In following the principles of the Chico General Plan 2030, this environmentally sensitive area needs to be protected as open space. Just say "NO" to the proposed Doe Mill/Honey Run SPA and the South Entler expansion project. Also, please plan on attending the September 28th meeting of the Chico General Plan with your comments regarding the Conservation and Open Space element of the General Plan 2030. You can review this element online here.

Click on #10: "Open Space and Environment Element" to read the document.

Native Americans had the philosophy of considering their actions in light of the impacts made Seven Generations into the future. Chico is considering only the next 20 years. Surely we can improve upon this general plan to ensure the quality of life and the enduring beauty of the surrounding foothills and creeks that are so valuable to us and for the children of future generations to come.

As Micheal Pollan has so aptly summarized, "'In wildness is the preservation of the world,' Thoreau once wrote; a century later, when many of the wild places are no more, Wendell Berry has proposed this necessary corollary: 'In human culture is the preservation of wildness.'" (The Botany of Desire. 2001) Now is the time for protecting the wildness that surrounds Chico.

From the Summer 2010 issue of the Environmental News.