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The environmental focus of BEC has shifted through the years. In the beginning, the implementation of a recycling program
for Butte County was the driving force behind the organization. Over the next 15 years, intensive efforts resulted in the
designation of wilderness areas in Northern California. Today responsible land use and development is the leading issue. "BEC
has survived twenty years and an evolution of change," commented John Merz, a driver in BECs curbside recycling program
and general manager from 1981 to 1982.
Advocacy plays a vital role in the successes made towards preservation of the environment. Actions taken by BEC to promote
environmental issues include:
* letter-writing campaigns,
* attending legislative hearings,
* observing local areas,
* sponsoring regional meetings,
* ensuring that sound environmental analyses are prepared before construction begins on property in Butte County,
and
* taking legal action when necessary.
Here are just of the major land use issues BEC has dealt with over the years:
Bucks Lake & Ishi Wilderness
In 1975, representatives from BEC, North State Wilderness and Sierra Club began efforts to get Ishi, Bucks Lake (Lassen Park),
and Chips Creek designated as wilderness areas. As an umbrella organization, BEC used its newsletter Homegrown to encourage
readers to write letters to Congress, and assisted the North State Wilderness Committee with urgent action letters. In response
to these efforts, thousands of people wrote to Congress requesting the establishment of the wilderness areas. In 1984, the
4,100-acre Ishi area and the 1,900-acre Bucks Lake area were designated as wilderness.
"Bucks Lake and Ishi Wilderness became designated wilderness areas because of BEC's effort," said Wes Dempsey,
a representative of the Sierra Club, and one of BEC's first board of directors.
Canyon Oaks High School
....
Canyon Ranch
An example of pressure for excessive development in Butte County was the 1987 Canyon Ranch project. The project site is located
southeast of Chico, east of Highway 99, between Skyway and Neal Road in Nance Canyon. Blakeley-Swartz, a Los Angeles-based
development company operated by partners Gerald W. Blakeley and Don Swartz, proposed to build a university research park of
computer, biomedical and other high-technology industries that would provide as many as 10,000 jobs on 6,392-acres of Nance
Canyon. Adjacent land to the research park would have been zoned residential for 4,200 homes. These homes would have been
built over a 20 year period and would eventually have housed some 15,000 residents.
BEC opposed the project because of the potential impacts of the project including:
* the significant impacts caused by creation of mini-city outside the county's urban areas, which is not equipped
for high population densities,
* a section of Neal Road would have to be turned into and eight-lane thoroughfare and all of it would have to be widened
between Highway 99 and Paradise,
* a large new sewer plant would be needed,
* an interchange would have to be built at Highway 99 and Neal Road, and
* impacts on the local school, groundwater, wildlife, downstream drainage, county service levels and south Chico traffic
would be significant.
After 32 months of discussions, hearings, environmental issues and proposals to both the County and the City, the partnership
and the project of Blakeley-Swartz dissolved. In 1994, two smaller developments were proposed separately by Blakeley and Swartz
and were both denied for many of the same reasons. BEC will continue to monitor and give input on further proposals.
Greenline
The Greenline is a boundary that separates urban from agricultural uses along Chico's western border. The goal of the green
line policy is to protect prime agricultural soils south, west and north of Chico from urban development. The policy is subject
to review every five years. To consider boundary modifications, two findings must be made:
* the public benefits of converting agricultural land to urban use must substantially outweigh the public benefits
of continued agricultural production, and
* there are no other urban and suburban lands reasonably available and suitable for proposed development.
The Greenline policy remains controversial.
Pressures to extend the urban area beyond the current green line include the following reasons:
* declining soil quality,
* declining land values, and
* agricultural and urban conflict due to a lack of buffer zones.
Over the past 24 years, Jane Dolan (the "mother" of the Greenline) and BEC have continually supported the Greenline.
BEC representatives have attended public hearings and written letters during the Greenline creation and each subsequent policy
review.
The Greenline has been challenged in the last few years while the Butte County General Plan is being revised. Developers
are trying to eat away at the boundaries with developments. BEC, along with many others, actively support and fight for the
Greenline.
Rancho Arroyo & Bidwell Ranch
The developers of the 750 acre Rancho Arroyo project first sought approval for their project in 1982. The project was approved,
then soundly rejected in 1988 by citizen referendum. The referendum was the culmination of the "No Way San Jose"
campaign waged by BEC's Michael McGinnis and Kelly Meagher in November 1987 in opposition to the massive project adjacent
to Upper Bidwell Park.
In 1991 Rancho Arroyo appeared again as the renamed Bidwell Ranch development, a down-scaled proposal with a 200-acre
buffer area to separate the development from neighboring Bidwell Park.
Bill Brouhard, spokesman for Bidwell Ranch said the new project "integrates the concerns and comments" local
citizens had aired over the ten year effort to go further with the development. The number of residential dwellings was reduced
from 4,600 units to 2,954 then finally to a maximum of 1,500 units. Bidwell Ranch also included an extensive pedestrian and
bike trail-way system and 450 acres of open space, but is still not approved or developed.
BEC's volunteers, interns and staff have worked diligently for sixteen years, writing letters, attending planning meetings
and organizing opposition to any development adjacent to Chico's precious Bidwell Park.
To prevent approval of the project, and the inevitable referendum to oppose it, BEC proposed that the City of Chico acquire
the Bidwell Ranch land and combine it with the adjacent Drake Homes mitigation site to form a 1,000 acre wetland preserve.
The site is covered with vernal pools, provides groundwater recharge, protects a critical watershed and viewshed, and leaves
intact a wildlife corridor connected to Bidwell Park. The establishment of this preserve would also provide one continuous
wetland area, as opposed to the standard patchwork preserves that are often too small to remain viable. In 1997, the City
of Chico purchased Bidwell Ranch.
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