Referendum effort is successful
Building development opponents got enough signatures, city and county say
Valley's Edge is heading back to the Chico City Council Chambers.
The referendum effort against the proposed 1,448-acre southeast Chico development has officially surpassed its target following verification of signatures, both Keaton Denlay, Butte County's clerk-recorder, and Debbie Presson, Chico's city clerk, confirmed Monday.
That means the Chico City Council, which approved Valley's Edge at an emotionally charged meeting Jan. 3, will take the matter up again while considering the next steps April 4.
Valley's Edge Resistance — encompassing the opposition group Smart Growth Associates and political action committee Save Our Hometown — filed two resolutions to overturn approvals by the City Council. The first sought to reverse changes to the city's general plan, made to accommodate the Valley's Edge proposal; the second was to block the Valley's Edge Specific Plan itself.
Presson said of the 8,373 signatures on the Specific Plan, 6,372 were deemed to be valid following review by the county clerk-recorder's office. On the General Plan referendum, 6,444 signatures were valid. Both marks comfortably exceeded the 5,800 needed for success.
The referendum's success means the council, which approved Valley's Edge by a 5-1 vote Jan. 3 following 5-2 approval by the Chico Planning Commission a month earlier, has a couple of choices to make. It can rescind its approval; call for a special election; or place the item on the next regularly scheduled election, which wouldn't take place until 2024.
Addison Winslow, the lone city councilor to oppose the development, said the referendum's success was unprecedented in its scope.
“The volunteers behind the Valley's Edge referendum blew it out of the water,” Winslow said. “We've never seen so many valid signatures collected for a municipal measure in Chico's history. I hope developers learn the lesson that you can't just write the working class out of the future of Chico. When anyone is offering to steward such a significant expansion of our city, we expect the plans to align with our community goals for affordability and sustainability.”
Bill Brouhard, Valley Edge's developer, blamed the outcome largely on “disinformation” by referendum organizers and said he looks forward to continuing to present his case.
“I really do see it as kind of gutting Chico's sustainable plan for growth and population outlined in the General Plan,” Brouhard said. “On one hand you have a plan that lasts for
generations that has parks and preserves trees and accomplishes so many environmental needs. Not to mention Valley's Edge, I believe, is the second-largest electric community in California. Why would environmentalists want to undo that? I don't see this as a path moving forward.”
On what he called “disinformation,” Brouhard added, “If the referendum process moves forward, I hope for an opportunity for the community to see fact versus fabrication. The more people understand
what is actually being proposed, the more favorable it becomes.”
If the council ends up opting for a special election, “the city would bear full cost,” Presson said, adding “the last regular election was more than $300,000, and I can't imagine a special election would be anything less than that if not more.”
Presson added that since the agenda for Tuesday's council meeting is already set, the item will be placed on the agenda for the council's April 4 meeting.