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March 28, 2008
A Little More of Ranch Dressing
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| Image: Possible new signs for Bidwell Ranch
Is anyone sick of me talking about Bidwell Ranch yet? Too bad, it's yet another day on the ranch. Today we'll move the fairy shrimp up to the top 40, and Hoss has found another patch of meadowfoam that broke loose from its pen. Saddle up cowpokes and cowpokettes, we're off on another adventure. Normally I wouldn't go at this topic again but I received an email from someone in the City Planning Department pointing out some issues with some of the things I previously wrote. So to make sure all of you loyal readers have the best information, here is a discussion based on the email. These include my opinions as well, and not just what was sent to me. 1. River Partners is under contract to provide information to the City of Chico about turning Bidwell Ranch into a mitigation conservation bank. They have not asked to own or manage the mitigation bank. They are being paid $250,000. The estimated cost of an endowment to start a mitigation bank has been around $500,000. Some additional infrastructure costs would likely occur. In 2005 River Partners made a rough estimate of $1 million to create a mitigation bank in a bid that they submitted to the city. I assumed they were bidding to manage the bank, apparently they just wanted to do the paperwork. 2. A number of entities could manage the mitigation bank, including River Partners (although they have expressed no interest in doing so). There are lots of options related to who manages it and how it is managed. The City Council will decide that at some time in the future. It could be managed by the same group that manages the 4400 acre ecological preserve east of Bidwell Park. The city could play a part in managing the site as well. 3. The mitigation and conservation bank under consideration might include all 759 acres and not just the wetlands. Although it is my opinion that the majority of the value of the "bank" would reside in the wetlands. No decision on turning Bidwell Ranch into a mitigation bank has been made. The council will make this decision based on the information available when River Partners finishes their $250,000 contract. 4. Cows reduce weeds in Bidwell Ranch and prevailing thought is that they do more good than harm to wetlands in the process. The "no trespassing" signs were placed to keep ATVs off of the site. The City is considering placing more inviting signs up this year (see my recommendations above). 5. The developer's offer to purchase 200 acres of Bidwell Ranch for between $30-$50 million that the city turned down had some strings attached. They included some infrastructure and entitlement to the land. I still think it was far and away the best financial solution the city has seen regarding this property. In all reality, had that offer gone through, the developer would probably be trying to offload it now (housing market). Just to be clear, I'm not necessarily an advocate of developing Bidwell Ranch. The mitigation bank idea feels like a shell game to me. The city could use the non-wetland area for many things in the future. It could be parkland, a solar power site, or it could be traded for property adjacent to Bidwell Park with greater environmental value. But if you're going to put a value on the environment a mitigation bank allows you to destroy, then comparing it to the retail land value is reasonable. 6. There's more but I just finished working on my car and I'm tired, so you're off the hook. |
| Mysterious Woman Leaves Me
Flowers: A mysterious woman left a flyer with a picture of flowers on it at my office. Rumor is she could have been a Friend O' The Park, or perhaps a Bosom Buddy of Bidwell Ranch. We'll never know. The flyer described a trip to explore the vernal pools of Bidwell Ranch. The trip is scheduled for Saturday, April 5th, 1PM. People will meet at the east side of Wildwood Park parking lot. Bring a hat, shoes, pants, hair, and fishing tackle for catching faery shrimp. I might try to go. Or instead I might build a giant wooden cow and hide inside of it. Then when the city goes to check the gate they'll see me as an offering and roll me inside the Ranch. At that point I'll rush out and claim Bidwell Ranch as the new Kingdom of American Liberty and Freedom (KALF). It will be a land where employee costs are limited to 60% of the annual budget. No study will be completed that costs more than $50,000. Only American flags will fly on lampposts. I'm sorry, only KALF flags will fly, but they look just like American flags. Parks will be built before open space is purchased, fenced, and populated with cattle. And lastly, our people will strive endlessly to free Cupcake from the faerie shrimp that hold her. |
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 CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: The Hoss of Chico's boot-scootin' boogie scen, Gregg Payne. See comments belwo for the answer. |
Posted by Lon at March 28, 2008 07:30 AM
Comments
That thar looks like the Tony Lama logo.
Posted by: Gregg Payne at March 28, 2008 07:53 AM
The best reason I've heard for keeping this area open was years ago from an Aero Union tanker pilot. He described how hard it is for a huge fully loaded plane to gain altitude after they take off headed South from the airport. It was implied that it's more a matter of "when" one of them goes down rather than "if".
This reason by itself is good enough for me. Maybe another landing strip through there would be something good to consider. One big enough for 747s so we could have a real airport would sure help with economic development. The City could always just buy wetland mitigation credits from themselves.
Posted by: Gregg Payne at March 28, 2008 08:23 AM
Gregg,
One of the main benefits of a mitigation bank is that the city could purchase mitigation credits to develop the west side of the airport.
But that leads to the whole "shell-game" that concerns me. If the mitigation bank is owned by some other entity I don't know if the City is the only group that can buy those credits. Could they be out-bid? If the credits are not dedicated to the City then what is the value of the bank? Why not buy credits elsewhere and simply save the vernal pools as open space and have the City maintain all control over it?
Alternatively, let's assume that the city owns the bank. They buy credits from themselves, which devalues the bank assets. The value of the bank would be something like...
$10 mil credits - $7.5 mil land cost - $1 mil bank startup = $1.5 mil.
That's all pretty rough. Compare that to the gross $30-$50 million for 200 acres that would have preserved the other 559 acres forever, and you start to see where the problem is.
It seems like the land would be more valuable to the City of Chico if it could be traded for property adjacent to Upper Park and the wetland portion of Bidwell Ranch was just preserved as opposed to banked.
But who knows, perhaps anyone flying over the site could buy credits in case they crash and destroy our bank.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at March 28, 2008 09:05 AM
lon, i might be wrong, but i think the money they used to buy bidwell ranch, was ear marked for chapmen town to hook into the cities waste water treatment plant. if this is true, i find chapmen town still on septic a greater environmental threat then losing b.r. please use your skills as sustainable lon to get to the bottom of this
Posted by: scott slattery at March 28, 2008 09:33 AM
Hey Scott,
I can tell from the history image that was on the last post that $5.6 million of the sewer trunkline funds were used in 1997 to purchase a portion of Bidwell Ranch.
The sewer trunkline capacity fund is used to connect Chico and County homes to sewer and reduce nitrate pollution. I think it is partially funded through long term revolving state loans to local government, and partly by fees we pay to use the potty. I'm not sure if the city ever repaid this money out of the General Fund.
I'll see if I can get that information. However I'm not sure that a specific section of Chico could be identified as having lost/delayed a sewer connection.
But that funding mechanism is kind of strange, and worth looking into. I thought Bidwell Ranch had some sewer lines installed when it was being prepped for development.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at March 28, 2008 10:33 AM
Dear Lon,
While I'm a little late posting, I beat you to this idea months ago. I own the Bidwell Ranch Dressing concept.
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/license-bidwell-ranch/
You are welcome to license it. But don't trespass on my trademark, or you'll be given "the tour".
Posted by: Anthony at March 28, 2008 10:20 PM
Anthony,
I'm all about the recycling. There is a twist however. The challenge was the Tony Lama logo, a manufacturer of cowboy boots. So my ranch dressing relates to apparel not salad sauce.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at March 29, 2008 07:10 AM