Silver Dollar BMX told to vacate by end of year
CHICO » Silver Dollar BMX has been informed by the city of Chico it must be out of the 2352 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Parkway site by the end of the year.
Silver Dollar BMX track operator Phil Wysocki said Monday the group was informed of the decision during a meeting last week.
“We figured the move was going to happen one way or another,” Wysocki said. “The move happening wasn’t a surprise. The time frame was a bit of a surprise though.”
The site has been discussed as recently as June in front of the City Council as a potential site for a “resting site/park rehabilitation program.”
In order to relocate the BMX track, $600,000 has been allocated from the city’s COVID-19 relief fund to go toward the project. The new location will be near the Chico Municipal Airport next to the Westside Little League Baseball fields.
“We’ve been working with the city on this project pretty much from the outset. We’ve been working with their engineers and we’ve been coordinating with City Manager (Mark) Orme on the new site,” Wysocki said. “There was a lot of community donors and a lot of community businesses that got involved in preparing the new site for a BMX track. We just didn’t think that we were going to be moving that direction this quickly.”
Wysocki said while the sudden request to be out by the end of the year is a bit of a shock, he believes the city’s search to put its legal troubles
to rest plays into the sudden decision.
“I understand the city is trying to deal with the lawsuit as well,” Wysocki said. “The obligations they may have as a result of whatever agreement they come to, I understand that plays into that decision to move the time frame as well.”
After Judge Morrison England ordered a restraining order for the city against anti-camping ordinances on April 11 for not having enough shelter beds available, the city opened the airport site in hopes to satisfy the court and comply with the Martin v. Boise case. England ruled the site did not comply on July 8 as it had no structure, electricity or running water. With the closure of the airport site on Friday, the city has no sanctioned camping area.
The site of the BMX track was also previously proposed as the site of a new Jesus Center building in January. Due to ownership, the site had to be reviewed by the state as a potential development location.
As the only BMX track within 80 miles, Wysocki said he’s hopeful the new location will be set up by the beginning of the year.
In a release from Silver Dollar BMX, the organization said it will try to secure a lease extension as the original relocation agreement with the city promised the track would not be forced to move until a replacement track was developed.
“For us, the priority is making sure that the kids in our community have a track to ride on and that we’re not displacing a bunch of youth who really love BMX,” Wysocki said. “With the number of youth we serve in the community, it’s hard to imagine being in a position where we don’t have a track to ride on.”
Orme would not comment on what a potential development on the site could be but said the city having the space open will be valuable.
“This has been something that the city has been attempting to do for a number of years. There are potential plans for that site that to have a cleared avenue to be able to engage on a project on that site just makes sense,” Orme said. “The reality that the city doesn’t have a lot of space that’s vacant that can potentially be utilized for any type of facility or any type of development potential limits our ability to do things.”
Orme said the people from Silver Dollar BMX have been incredibly patient while the city determines its direction, adding the city is hopeful the new BMX location, aside from being a new facility for riders, will be a way to generate revenue for local businesses as well.
“City staff really sees this regional BMX facility of real economic value for the community. It’s been evidenced by obviously COVID, it’s one of the few outdoor types of youth activities that lent itself to enabling folks to continue to exercise,” Orme said. “From a staff perspective, we’ve had a lot of great conversations with a lot of entities and it sounds like this won’t just be a regional pull for bringing in people from around the region, it could very well end up being an international pull on dollars coming into our community to help support our economy.”