The Chico City Council on May 20 finalized the adoption of ordinance amendments to further regulate outdoor warming appliances and barbecues.
Fire Chief Steve Standridge said the new ordinance will regulate to “mitigate significant fire risks before the start of the fire season” and to “better protect our community.”
Councilmember Addison Winslow cast the sole vote in opposition to the ordinance. He says it’s one of the many ordinances targeting the unhoused population.
Under the newly-amended ordinance, the use of outdoor warming appliances and barbecues is limited to private property or in some areas designated parks, and the barbecues on public property or in public right of way will be prohibited without a permit.
The new ordinance will clarify and expand on existing fire safety requirements.
The fire department says barbecues on sidewalks or streets in front of private homes already required a permit under Chico Municipal Code chapter 14.50 that “regulates the use of streets and sidewalks for public assembly.”
Under that municipal code chapter, there is no mention of the use of warming fires and barbecues. The definition of “public assembly” in the code is “any organized activity on or within a city street, sidewalk or other public right-of-way which the public is invited to observe or participate in … for which any public street is temporarily closed to vehicular traffic.”
Standridge said at the May 6 meeting that the new ordinance would “have some misdemeanor aspects to it as well” and “give us more authority to actually cite people for failing to adhere to City’s code.”
Winslow later told ChicoSol that the cost of “simple and brutal” ordinances will affect not only unhoused people, but eventually the activities of other community members, “like barbecuing on the street, on the sidewalk, and sharing it with your neighbors and having a little gathering.”
“We had an understanding that if you’re a homeowner, then you won’t have any problem with the law,” Winslow told ChicoSol. “But if somebody does not own a home, then we’re going to be targeting them with this.
“That’s not how we should make laws. We shouldn’t intend to discriminate in the enforcement of laws … and we are letting police have more leeway to arrest whoever whenever they want.”
Councilmember Tom van Overbeek was one of the six on the panel voting in favor of the ordinance. Van Overbeek confirmed with the chief during the May 6 meeting that there had been 274 fires in 2024 related to the unhoused population.
Van Overbeek said most city residents would probably not bother to get a permit to barbecue on the sidewalk in front of their homes, and no one would likely be penalized for that.
ChicoSol asked van Overbeek for further comment on the ordinance, but failed to get a response to an email and phone request prior to publication.