If you’ve driven through flooded streets in Chico, the city wants your feedback.
It’s updating its Storm Water Master Plan. The plan covers how storm water is managed within city limits, as well as some outlying areas to reduce the potential for flooding.
It’s the first time the public will have a chance to help update the plan in more than twenty years. The original Storm Water Master plan was created in the 1980s. It was last updated in 2001.
The final draft of the plan is now posted for the public’s review.
Richard Burgi, associate engineer for the city of Chico, said the draft plan includes models of areas that are most at risk for flooding.
“We put in all the elevation data, and then we put in rainfall data, and also all the existing improvements,” he said. “And what it does, is it tells us where there might be issues.”
He said the city is asking members of the public to review those models and offer their input because their firsthand experience is valuable.
“The local population is important for their input to help us basically calibrate the model,” he said. “Come in and take a look at it and say, ‘yes, this is true’, or ‘you've missed something here.’”
The city is hosting a virtual community meeting Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Members of the public will have a chance to ask questions and provide feedback.
