Chico voters will weigh in on a controversial land development plan Tuesday.
Two measures on the ballot, Measure O and Measure P, ask whether the city should continue with plans for Valley’s Edge, a massive development that would be built on the southeast side of Chico.
While fire risk may not be the chief concern motivating many voters, the outcome will say something about the popularity of building homes in California’s wildland urban interface (WUI), where wildfire risk is high.
The debate over building in the wildland urban interface
The nearly 1,500 acres planned in the Valley’s Edge development lie squarely in the WUI, which means its fire risk is higher than in urban areas. This year, Cal Fire’s new Fire Hazard Severity Zone Maps will reclassify that area as “high fire hazard,” a level up from “moderate.” The reclassification will become official in April.
But wildfire risk is everywhere, said former Chico Fire Chief Bill Hack.
“If we only built things in places that have never burned before, nothing in the state of California would ever [be] built because everything in the state of California has burned at one time or another,” Hack said.
Valley’s Edge supporters point to a gap between housing stock and demand in the county to say the community needs housing, even if it must be built in the WUI.
Hack said the plan for Valley’s Edge exceeds the latest fire-safe building codes issued by the state. The developer plans to enroll all Valley’s Edge communities in the voluntary Firewise USA program, which helps neighborhoods harden homes and prepare residents for wildfire. He said those are the highest standards for wildfire resilience designed to protect residents in the WUI.
Jacquelyn Chase, professor emerita of geography and planning at Chico State, said it’s not possible to safely build in the WUI. She’s part of a contingent of researchers who believe development in the WUI needs to slow down or stop altogether.
“The magnitude and the unpredictability of wildland fire under climate change should give planners a reason to say no to sprawl,” Chase said at a panel discussion on the issue earlier this year. “They've chosen to overlook the warnings by fire researchers, the insurance industry and Cal Fire about building into the wildland urban interface.”
Chase said future megafires will behave in such extreme ways that even home hardening technology — like metal roofs and maintaining five feet of clear space around the home — might not be enough to keep communities safe.
Chase is skeptical of the efficacy of Firewise communities. In an interview with NSPR, she used the 2017 fires in wine country, the 2018 Carr Fire, and the 2018 Camp Fire as examples of megafires burning communities that were hardened or already a part of the Firewise program. She adds it’s bold for Valley’s Edge supporters to assume all residents will stay vigilant about fire-safe landscaping practices.
“There are just too many promises,” she said.
In 2022, Valley’s Edge developers commissioned a report to respond to citizens’ concerns over wildfire risk in the project. It argued wildfire-safe building and home maintenance methods have proven their effectiveness in the past, including in California wildfires. The report argued that hardened communities like Valley’s Edge could actually reduce fire risk for the greater area.
Does Valley’s Edge protect Chico from fire or put the city at greater risk?
Valley’s Edge supporters say the hardened homes of the development will act as a buffer the next time a wildfire threatens the city of Chico.
Bill Hack, the former fire chief in Chico, argues that grasslands — which make up the majority of the landscape at Valley’s Edge — will catch fire. He said hardened homes could stop it.
“Having a community that's planned right with these built-in buffers will help slow the fire as it gets to a community,” Hack said.
Supporters also say Valley’s Edge will be built to have plenty of firefighting resources including access roads, water sources and a potential new fire station. Hack said if the project is rejected, he worries the land would be developed piecemeal, rather than to meet a uniform standard for hardened communities.
Opponents say the undeveloped natural landscape around the city would do a better job of protecting Chico from wildfires.
Jared Geiser, a project coordinator for the Altacal Chapter of the Audubon Society, has advocated against Valley’s Edge for several years.
He said more housing should be built in central Chico, not into the natural landscape. He believes sprawling growth puts future residents at risk.
Oak woodlands make up about a third of the land slated for the development of Valley’s Edge. According to historical fire data and environmental reports, those are adapted to burn in wildfires every five to fifteen years.
Various parts of the area have burned in recent fires, including the 2018 Camp Fire, Geiser said.
“[This area] was a critical fire buffer, actually, to protect the city of Chico during the Camp Fire,” he said.
According to Geiser, firefighters used the area’s grassy open spaces and oak woodlands to “back-burn,” setting new fires in the oncoming wildfire’s path, which slowed its progress toward the city. He argued building homes and roads there would give wildfires more fuel and reduce opportunities for back-burning and prescribed burning.
Other environmental concerns
Though safety from wildfire is one reason Geiser opposes Valley’s Edge, it isn’t his chief concern. The two biggest issues he sees are habitat loss and climate change.
“This project is not climate-smart,” Geiser said. “It has significant and unavoidable impacts on the climate.”
Development would disrupt wetlands and grasslands that house critical animal and plant species, like the endangered Butte County meadowfoam. Geiser said it would also bring more traffic, which increases greenhouse gas emissions and accelerates climate change. Climate change in turn increases wildfire risk.
Geiser said he often bikes the path near the Valley’s Edge area to birdwatch.
“I’m really grateful that we have opportunities like that here in Chico because we have open space surrounding the city. We haven't sprawled into every last square foot,” Geiser said. “And we're hoping that stays that way.”
State lawmakers, developers watching Valley’s Edge
Camille von Kaenel, California environment reporter for Politico and a former reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record, is following the fight over Valley’s Edge. She’s reported on what the vote will say about Californians’ priorities.
“I think this goes to the heart of two competing priorities in California, which are to build more housing and protect communities against climate change,” von Kaenel said.
Those two priorities — housing and wildfire safety — are also clashing in the courts statewide.
Environmental groups are suing the city of Chico and the developer of Valley’s Edge, challenging the project’s compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, which includes wildfire safety.
In recent years, other developers have been sued in Lake County, San Diego County, and Los Angeles County over housing projects planned in the WUI.
Von Kaenel said the courts have weighed in on either side. Some cases have reached settlements. Others have resulted in orders to make changes to the project to be more wildfire-safe.
She said the issue also goes beyond the courts. Lawmakers in the state legislature are trying to limit development in disaster-prone areas and are butting heads with developers.
“There is this wider debate going on and there isn't really a clear answer,” she said.
She said the vote in Chico will be one of the few times the issue has been put to voters.
“In that way, the Valley’s Edge ballot measures are really interesting, because they could show other regions that are reckoning with this debate how voters feel,” von Kaenel said.
Housing may be the most important issue for Chico voters
According to polling from the Valley’s Edge developer, housing costs and homelessness are voters’ biggest concerns, not wildfire risk.
Whether the project even supports enough affordable housing is another point of contention between the two sides. Opponents of the project say Valley’s Edge doesn’t prioritize building affordable housing, supporters say any new housing helps.
Former Chico Fire Chief Bill Hack supports Valley’s Edge, in part because he believes Chico isn’t what it used to be.
“We used to thrive on bringing great people and great minds up to Chico State and having them fall in love with this community and wanting to raise a family here and being able to do it,” he said. “Now they may want to do it. But are they actually able to do it?”
Wildfire risk may not be as high a concern for voters, but it’s sure to be on some minds as they take to the polls on Tuesday. Whatever they decide, it’ll set a precedent for other communities weighing the risk of building new housing in the wildland-urban interface.
