Vehicles still to be allowed in some parts of Lower Park on weekdays
by Yucheng Tang | Posted June 19, 2025
A man runs today on South Park Drive in Lower Bidwell Park. Photo by Yucheng Tang.
The City Council voted 4-3 to approve closure of parts of Lower Bidwell Park to vehicles at the June 17 meeting. Mayor Kasey Reynolds, Vice Mayor Dale Bennett and Councilmember Michael O’Brien voted in opposition.
Many of the 17 speakers during the public comment session opposed the plan to close the entire stretch of South Park Drive—running parallel to Woodland Avenue—to vehicular traffic. Under the plan, the parking lot at the One Mile Recreation Area will only be accessed via Woodland Avenue, and the plan will be implemented in the summer of 2026.
“There has been no proof, no evidence that any of these improvements are needed, except for the resurfacing of the pathway, the roadway in the park,” said Elizabeth Griffin, who, like most speakers, supported pavement rehabilitation without any other changes. read more
The City Council majority voted at its June 3 meeting to staff Fire Engine 1, but the panel was divided over where to find the funding.
The 4-3 vote to cut the road repair fund — instead of cutting unoccupied positions at Chico Police Department or elsewhere in the budget — elicited sighs from some members of the audience. The road repair fund comes from Measure H sales tax revenue.
“I’m not going to lose sleep if we delay some road projects,” said Councilmember Mike O’Brien. “If we lose a neighborhood because our fire department is not adequately staffed, I will lose sleep over that.”read more
Winslow says the ordinance targets the unhoused community
by Yucheng Tang | Posted May 22, 2025
photo by Karen Laslo
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.read more
An officer tells a homeless woman at Humboldt and Forest that she must move from the encampment.
Councilmember Addison Winslow, at the next City Council meeting, says he will push for a study of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ordinance designed to guide cities that are struggling to manage homeless encampments.
Last week, Gov. Newsom released what he called a “model ordinance” that can be used to “address unhealthy and dangerous encampments.” The ordinance provides a framework local jurisdictions can use to remove encampments from public spaces, and permits speedier enforcement than the framework the City uses now under the Warren v. ChicoSettlement Agreement.
For example, the so-called model ordinance requires that officials or officers post a notice 48 hours before taking enforcement actions, “except in exigent circumstances involving an imminent threat to life, safety, health, or infrastructure.” In contrast, the Settlement Agreement mandates 7-day notice to Legal Services of Northern California prior to enforcement planning, 7-day notice to homeless persons who are camping on public property, and finally, a 72-hour notice prior to enforcement.read more
Community members who spoke hold out hope for people who seem challenging to help
by Yucheng Tang | Posted May 3, 2025
photo by Yucheng Tang
Behavioral Health Director Scott Kennelly speaks at the first meeting of the City’s ad hoc committee on homelessness.
At the first meeting of the City’s ad hoc committee on homelessness, the discussion touched on the overlap between homelessness, substance abuse and mental health. It also raised two related questions: how to address the problem of shelter-resistant homeless individuals, and whether compelled treatment is sometimes necessary.
Scott Kennelly, the director of Butte County Behavioral Health, said homeless outreach teams have worked to convince unhoused people to take advantage of services and have tried to connect them with services, but there are always people who say, “Leave me the hell alone.”read more
Lemner: "There isn’t a carpet big enough to sweep all these people under"
by Yucheng Tang | Posted March 5, 2025
photo by Yucheng Tang
Margo Lemner was one of 18 people who asked City Council for action.
The City Council unanimously passed Mayor Kasey Reynolds’ motion to create an ad hoc committee to address homelessness at the March 4 meeting.
Reynolds noted that “the scope of the committee would be on the three items originally agendized,” including ordinances, code changes and programs distinct from anti-camping ordinance enforcement.
“The committee would have a time-sensitive due date of coming back in one of our June meetings,” Reynolds said, in making the motion for the ad hoc group. “We would bring a report back to Council with recommendations for the full Council to consider at that time.”
Reynolds suggested the committee include herself as chair and councilmembers Bryce Goldstein and Mike O’Brien. Goldstein had asked for the discussion on the trio of items.
Eighteen people spoke during the public comment period, all asking the City for more effective ways to address homelessness, without anyone in opposition.
“I see people in just the last couple of months sleeping on a real piece of sidewalk with no overhead and both night time and storm clouds moving in,” said a speaker from the audience, Margo Lemner. “We need the will, we need outreach, we need more shelter … There isn’t a carpet big enough to sweep all these people under.”
Summer Chapla shared that March 5 was the two-year anniversary of finding her brother in his tent after he overdosed. “I don’t know what the answer is,” Chapla said. “I know that there has to be a better one than what’s going on right now, and we have to treat these people with dignity.”
Councilmember Addison Winslow made a motion to improve utilization of the pallet shelters – the Genesis emergency housing – without impacting the schedule of enforcement sweeps, but the motion failed in a 4-3 vote. Reynolds promised the matter would come before the ad hoc committee.
Reynolds said the pallet shelter housing and the Eaton and Cohasset roads encampment “are having significant issues and impacts on the surrounding businesses and neighborhoods, some of which are close to possibly being legal problems for the City.”
“So I actually agree with a ton of what I heard tonight,” Reynolds said following the public hearing. “Whatever we do needs to work for everybody, our unhoused, our community members, and our businesses.”
Some of the speakers mentioned the Feb. 27 evictions — what the City calls an “enforcement sweep” — at City Plaza. When ChicoSol arrived at the Plaza that morning, some 10 homeless people with tents and luggage were scattered on the sidewalks after being asked to leave and cease camping.
An unhoused man said he had received a seven-day eviction notice on Feb. 19, but he had “so much stuff” he needed to figure out where he could move. “We have nowhere to go,” he told ChicoSol.
One of the speakers at the March 4 meeting protested the sweeps as ineffective in solving the problem.
“As it stands, the sweeps do nothing to help leverage folks out of homelessness who are there,” said Felix Mahootian. “These are just enforcement, not preventive.”
Mayor Reynolds said that according to her “quick math right now” the City might be spending close to $10,000 a year per unhoused person.
Following the meeting Winslow told ChicoSol the proposal for the ad hoc committee was a surprise to him.
“The more we have it in a public light, the better solutions we’re going to get,” Winslow said. “It’s an opportunity to get into some details about how the City has been blocking solutions to homelessness, what the City can do to make smart investments, and improving the outcome.”
President of North State Shelter Team, Charles Withuhn, has campaigned relentlessly for a managed, outdoor campground for unhoused people who don’t accept or can’t get into other shelters.
“It was a historic turn toward a wider variety of plans that offer a more effective shelter crisis strategy by our City Council tonight!” Withuhn wrote in an email to ChicoSol.
Goldstein said she was cautiously optimistic about the new approach.
“I’m grateful to see the Council working together towards addressing homelessness,” she said after the meeting. “It sounds like it’ll probably be me and Michael O’Brien and Kasey Reynolds [on the ad hoc committee]. I look forward to working with them.
“But we have tended to disagree on how to address homelessness,” Goldstein noted. “So I am a little worried that some of the ideas that I may come in there with and that the service providers in our community will want to talk about may get shut down in committee.”
