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March 30, 2006
MOST CHICO RESIDENTS AND CITY OFFICIALS ESPOUSE THAT CHICO IS A LIVABLE AND UNIQUE COMMUNITY-NOT THE CITY COUNCIL OR PLANNING COMMISSION
I consistently hear members of the City Council and Planning Commission publicly espouse the beauty, uniqueness and livability of the Chico Community, but they seems to loose their way as they approve residential developments and outside consultant contracts.
Here are a few examples and there are many more:
At a recent INFILL WORKSHOP, the City Director of Planning explained that infill deals with more than just the density of development--the number of dwellings on a parcel. It also deals with how houses are placed, heights of homes, whether there is privacy for the people already living in the neighborhood, how the homes face on the street and the building’s physical appearance (Enterprise Record article, March 29, 2006, first page). They missed-the-boat completely on the recently approved development, now called SORRENTO (at East 1st. Avenue and Kentfield Road), where they allowed the new houses in the development facing the existing contiguous houses to overlook the backyards and sited within approximately 7 feet of the property line with sloping red tile roofs facing the adjacent backyards--I doubt that there are very many members of the Council or Planning Commission that have this kind of situation in their own living and backyard quarters. In addition, they allowed the developer to wall-in the development with a solid wall along East 1st Avenue--very unique to Chico and does not seem to square with what was expressed by the City Director of Planning.
At the recent DOWNTOWN ACCESS PLANNING CHARRETTE (I call it a Charade)there was another example of hiring consultants to come to town (at a cost of $160,000 or more) with boiler-plate ideas from other dissimilar cities and trying to foist them on Chico--I’m not blaming the consultants since I’m assuming that they were following the requirements of their contracts. Since I attended most of the 4 day Charrette meetings, it became clear from the beginning that their only concerns were related to how to get everyone out of their autos and into Downtown via bicycles or public transit—I can just see the customers coming to town on bicycles during our rainy and hot seasons. When using their bicycles, I’m sure that they brought enough money to do their shoping, eating, and drinking—if they arrive in one piece. When asked about the local statistical information on the number of bicyclist and public transit users, I was told that information was not required by their contract, nor was any estimate of costs for the recommendations to be included in their Final Report to the City.
By the way, there was nothing discussed during the 4 day Charrette (which I now name SHAM) that has not been included in other local Downtown Plans or discussions during the past several decades—except the consultants’ suggestions to consider eliminating parking time limits and substituting increased parking fees (say 75c an hour) in high parking demand areas--they dismissed the idea of enforcing parking meter time limits.
I'm certain after the Final Report is published (I understand in a week or so) all interested Real Stakeholders will have plenty to say. I wished they had attended all of the 4 day meetings, but they’ll have another chance to express their concerns when the Final Report is considered by the City Council, sometime in May.
Posted by at March 30, 2006 02:53 PM