Updated 10 a.m. on July 9
It could have been the clock nearing 11, or fatigue and frustration at a vexatious land use dispute stretching back three decades, but the 759-acre Bidwell Ranch property inched a hair closer to being formally added to Bidwell Park at a City Council meeting Tuesday night.
The property has been a local political lightning rod test since before preservationists blocked a 1,500-home subdivision and 14-acre commercial development with a citywide referendum in 1988.
No formal action was taken on the issue Tuesday.
For well over a decade officials have pondered a novel use for the site — a potentially lucrative trade in habitat credits. While federal and state regulations protect wetlands from development, the laws have some leeway. Wetlands and endangered species habitat can be sacrificed, if similar habitat elsewhere is preserved.
Greg DeYoung, vice president of Westervelt Ecological Services, explained, “If Caltrans is widening a highway and they need 10 vernal pool credits, and you’ve gone through this process and you have a bank that has 10 credits then you can sell those to Caltrans for some amount of money.”
But complex and shifting regulations make establishing a so-called mitigation bank no easy feat. And the profits are hardly guaranteed. In any case, the long-held dream of turning preservation into cash seems to be evaporating as quickly as a seasonal pond under a blistering late spring sun. Tuesday night, the council appeared close to throwing in the towel. The issue will be revisited in September.
In other action, the Chico City Council extended local restrictions on cigarette smoking to electronic cigarettes, approved a drive through window for a proposed coffee shop, and increased some city fees. The council also lent its approval to a request by Trader Joe’s to sell hard liquor and for the operators of a north Chico wine bar to open an adjacent tavern. State liquor regulators will have the final say.
