CHICO — Downtown decisions were the matter of Tuesday evening as Chico city councilors provided input of their vision for the city’s Downtown Complete Streets improvement project.
Between choosing two car lanes or three; bi-directional or one way bike lanes; and other factors, the councilors — with Tom van Overbeek recused and Deepika Tandon absent — gave direction on a number of considerations for how downtown will look before the city moves forward with grant opportunities.
Director of Public Works Engineering Brendan Ottoboni said the project presents the city with an opportunity to replace aging utilities, like the city’s 70- to 100-year-old sewage lines, while rebuilding the downtown corridor.
“It’s important we get this right,” Ottoboni said. “It’s going to have weight for generations to come.”
Current proposed designs are drawn from public input sessions, the city’s 2030 general plan; its climate action plan, bikeway plan, Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan and other downtown plans that have been created in past years.
Given the project’s emphasis on protected bicycle lanes, Ottoboni cited pedestrian crash data that 93 people were hit by drivers from 2010 to 2020; two of those crashes were fatal.
“A lot of planning documents that have gone into this in the decades. … It’s our job to come up with the best ideas,” Ottoboni said. “There’s 82 feet from building face to building face; we’re not going to get everything we want.”
Councilors gave direction to staff on five items: sidewalk vaults into businesses, street trees, bike lane buffers, considerations for Second, Third and Fourth streets; and the main features on Main Street and Broadway.
Vaults
About 24 vaults downtown give sidewalk access to businesses, and were created before ADA standardization. Ottoboni said they are critical to operations for some business owners, and cost around $6,000 to $10,000 to replace and license.
The council voted 4-1 with a no from councilor Addison Winslow on a motion to continue their use, and to replace the vaults if business owners are interested or cover them otherwise.
Councilor Sean Morgan made a motion that Chico will pay for half of the replacement because “it’s not super fair to pay for something you have. But if we offer to pay for all of them, everyone’s going to say ‘yes I want it’ when they don’t all want it.”
Street trees
Street trees have damaged parts of sidewalks downtown, and the council deliberated to either replace them with native species inside a tree box paired with lighting, grating and a root barrier; or to keep existing trees and pour new concrete around them.
Mayor Andrew Coolidge held concern that new trees would be smaller and would take years to grow in, and that Chico would lose trees that add diversity and “uniqueness” to downtown. Councilors Winslow and Casey Reynolds suggested keeping legacy trees as much as possible.
Councilors voted 5-0 to proceed with a combination of keeping legacy trees where cost effective, and replacing the rest with the new proposed features.
Bike lane buffer
A safety buffer three to five feet wide protecting bicycle lanes from car lanes was considered in three flavors: a wrought iron fence, planter boxes or a landscaping strip.
Morgan preferred the landscaping strip and said planter boxes will block car doors from opening. Councilor Dale Bennett said the landscaping strip would be a “headache for somebody to take care of,” and that the wrought iron fence would be “once and done.” However, Councilor Casey Reynolds said the fence would block car passengers from accessing the sidewalk, and Winslow said the fence would be “hostile to human activity.”
An initial motion to choose planter boxes by Morgan failed with three no votes from Winslow, Coolidge and Bennett.
Coolidge, feeling creative after Winslow suggested an opportunity for another row of trees, motioned for landscaping mixed with trees. “An extra row of trees would look gorgeous,” Coolidge said. His motion passed 3-2 with no votes from Bennett and Morgan.
Second, Third, Fourth
Part of Tuesday’s consideration was whether or not to include Second, Third and Fourth streets in the city’s plan for bicycle lane improvements, “road dieting” reducing driving lanes from three to two; and removing some parking.
Winslow said he thinks bikeway connections on Third and Fourth streets, between lower Bidwell Park and downtown, is “one the most beautiful aspects of this project” that expands safe connectivity in the corridor of the city.
“If you can access the park safely on your bike, then you’d be able to go all the way downtown; all the way up The Esplanade; all the way out to the airport actually,” Winslow said.
Bennett said he doesn’t like the thought of losing business parking on those streets, and the scenario of a delivery truck blocking one of the two lanes. Coolidge and Reynolds shared the same concern.
“While it’s certainly admirable to improve bicycle safety … I would like to see this reworked such that we maintain the traffic flow and the stalls and try and work something else out regarding the bike situation,” Bennett said.
Morgan said he can’t fathom the side streets being one lane wide, and made a motion to keep bicycle safety improvements to Fourth Street only, which passed 4-1 with a no from Winslow.
Main Street, Broadway
The main course for the evening was Chico’s iconic Main Street and Broadway, and councilors had to make a major decision to keep it three lanes wide or reduce it to two and possibly remove 93 parking spaces.
Councilors also deliberated to have a single two-way bicycle lane on Main Street; or two one-way lanes on both Main and Broadway.
There was no consensus. Morgan said he would never vote to add bicycle lanes on the two streets and requested city staff keep it “as Chico as possible.” Winslow discussed the opportunity for transport grants, and said he did not feel the same as other councilors about losing parking. Reynolds requested staff go back to the drawing board and “quickly bring them back.”
Ottoboni said he would bring back four to five options that prioritize each of the elements presented.
