Canyon View High School Facts

Project History

In March 1998, Chico approved a $48.75 million bond measure to fund a new high school and repairs for existing schools. Some school repairs have been completed and some will be initiated during the summer breaks of 2001 and 2002. Starting in the mid 90’s, the school district tried to pass bond measures to build a new high school. The first two failed for lack of support from conservative members of the community that felt the bond measures were too "fat." After editing by these folks, the third bond measure passed in April of 1998. The failure of the first two bond measures delayed the high school by several years.

During this same period, a Site Selection Committee was formed to look for appropriate land to locate the new school. The committee evaluated at least 14 sites during 1997-98, narrowing the choices right after the election to a parcel at Humboldt and Bruce Rd. and a plot of land owned by George Schmidbauer behind Raley's. During a committee meeting on May 13, 1998 another parcel at 20th Street east of Bruce Rd., also owned by Schmidbauer, was brought to the attention of the group as a possible site for the school. The land east of Bruce Rd. at 20th was inaccurately presented to the Site Selection Committee as a parcel that appeared less constrained by environmental issues.

Environmental Constraints

Many of the lands in southeast Chico, including all of Schmidbauer’s, were designated as Resource Management Areas in the General Plan due to the valuable natural resources found there. Unfortunately for local school children, the Site Selection Committee pursued the most highly constrained Schmidbauer property east of 20th and Bruce Streets. There has been ongoing community concern regarding the focus on this one property by Chico Unified School District (CUSD) because the community, the Chico City Council, state and federal agencies, and the CUSD all have known for a decade that the primary site selected for the high school is heavily constrained by wetlands and the unique endangered species plant, Butte County meadowfoam.

BEC and Chico’s environmental community have not hindered the process to build a new high school in southeast Chico. In fact, for the last two years we have advised the CUSD that their primary location would most likely be held up due to the permitting processes by the regulatory agencies and the value of the habitat.

Blending Two Projects Into One

The pristine wetland site selected as first choice for a high school in southeast Chico is currently part of a 347-acre proposal to fill 6.85 acres of jurisdictional wetlands to build 700 single-family residential units and 300 multi-family units. Part of the property contains one of the last healthy populations of Butte County meadowfoam in the Chico area. Though the wetland and special status species values are well known, the CUSD married itself to the east of Bruce portion of this highly constrained property due to an undisclosed deal with the developer. There are four other viable alternatives west of Bruce Road that have been supported and encouraged for a high school by the environmental community and the jurisdictional agencies. Recently, the CUSD expanded its scope of analysis for state environmental review to include three additional parcels with equal intensity: a wise choice.

This column originally appeared in March 2001 in the Chico Examiner.