Revenue needs to support the upkeep

Editor-For-A-Day Nichole Nava (March 23) asks some excellent questions about the City of Chico’s ability to maintain infrastructure after it is built. But she limits her questions to the proposed extension of the bicycle path along Highway 99, a very useful extension which completes a through-going route that allows all Chico residents to safely patronize many shops, restaurants, and other businesses by bicycle.

It will need to be maintained, sure. But it will be a simple narrow stretch of asphalt with few curbs or drains—much cheaper to maintain than any street. Speaking of which, let’s consider the many streets and other infrastructure currently being built to serve the single-family-housing developments sprouting on the edges of town. That infrastructure, unlike a through-going bicycle path, serves only the few residents that live there. Yet their property taxes will never generate enough revenue to properly maintain that infrastructure. Where will the money come from?

I urge the City of Chico to do the math and deny any proposed development that cannot generate enough revenue to pay for the maintenance of the infrastructure it requires. Cities that have done the math (for example, by using the services of Urban3) have found that single-family neighborhoods almost never pass this test. What does, every time? Medium-density mixed-use walkable neighborhoods. Think downtown Chico and Meriam Park. Let’s make Chico financially stronger and build more developments like those.

Intrigued? For entertaining eye-opening YouTube videos on what makes communities strong, go to “Not Just Bikes” and “Strong Towns.”

— Ann Bykerk-Kauffman