A major housing development planned in Chico is raising questions about where the city ends and farmland begins
The Barber Yard project calls for up to 1,250 homes, plus businesses and parks at the former Diamond Match site in southwest Chico.
But a stormwater basin for the development would sit outside city limits and beyond the Greenline, a longstanding boundary meant to preserve agricultural land from city growth.
The Butte Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) oversees city boundaries. Executive Officer Shannon Costa laid out staff concerns at a meeting Thursday.
“The basin is an extension of city services outside of its sphere and across the Greenline,” Costa said. “The basin is a conversion of agricultural lands, which LAFCo is to protect.”
Commissioners were told that Chico does not consider the basin an extension of public services requiring the commission's approval.
Commissioners agreed to a future public hearing to consider that question.
