Prospective plans to substantially redesign a major street in Chico — the Esplanade — are being further refined ahead of an upcoming hearing before the city council.
Several conceptual designs have been cast aside after a previous hearing, but the crux of each remains under consideration.
City officials were notified a decade ago that the tree-lined boulevard’s narrow and buckled sidewalks did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Officials have substantially broadened a plan to address that — by including safety improvements near schools, and a possible bike path — in hopes of attracting large federal and state grants. Without the money, the city is unlikely to repair the sidewalks, let alone anything else.
“The whole intent of this is to go get the funds because again, a recognized safety issue and accessibility issue,” said Brendon Ottoboni, Chico’s Public Works director.
Some of the proposals, notably building a two-way bike path on an abandoned railroad right-of-way and replacing two intersections with roundabouts have generated criticism.
But, he said, Caltrans and the city’s own data show fewer accidents, and far fewer major accidents, at intersections where a roundabout has replaced signals.
“From a statistical, engineering perspective, they work,” Ottoboni said.
But Ottoboni acknowledged, from a driver’s perspective roundabouts can mystify.
“It’s different, and it’s different from the stoplight that tells you to stop, and it tells you to go,” he said.
Caltrans itself took more than a decade to warm to roundabouts. The latest proposals are expected to be considered by the council April 5.
