A new bike park is on its way to southeast Chico.
In its last meeting of the year, the city council approved giving two properties on Humboldt Road to the Chico Area Recreation and Park District, or CARD, to develop a bicycle park.
The building, funding and maintenance of the park will be in the hands of CARD and Chico Velo, a bicycle advocacy nonprofit.
Explore Butte County executive director Nicole Farley showed up to the meeting to support the new development.
“Oh my gosh, from a community standpoint, it provides a gateway for those who don't know anybody in mountain biking to meet people in mountain biking,” Farley said.
The park will be built on surplus land that the city’s handing over for the project.
It will offer cyclists obstacles and trails, which supporters say may offset the building of unauthorized ones in Bidwell Park.
Along with the bike features, the final design will include a broader community area with food truck space and a dog park.
Other council meeting business included discussion, or lack thereof, regarding a recently implemented shopping cart ordinance.
A resolution would have established fees for businesses whose shopping carts are found off of their premises.
But Councilmember Sean Morgan worried about how the fees would impact local merchants.
“We can’t live up to our mission statement of an ideal location for business when we’re punishing business owners for things that are being stolen from them,” Morgan said.
Likewise, Councilmember Tom Van Overbeek had a similar view.
“Whenever you see somebody with a shopping cart, wheeling it down the street, it’s by definition stolen,” Van Overbeek said. “The burden shouldn’t be entirely on the merchants. Although they have a responsibility for controlling what happens to their property.”
The council voted unanimously to ask staff to come back with a revised proposal.
