Talk about Chico neighborhood a bit lacking

California Park in Chico has trails around the lakes and is popular with young fisherpeople. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Development—especially a major housing project—is likely to be controversial no matter where it is proposed to be built.

Such was the case for California Park in Chico.

Because I’ve lived in this neighborhood for more than five years, I was excited to attend the Sept. 19 talk about its history at the Chico History Museum.

In 1968 Jack Graham embarked on developing a massive subdivision on the southeast side of town that originally would be home to 25,000 people. At the time, Chico’s population was 19,000. (Some of that information I found elsewhere.)

Those numbers illustrate why there would be controversy.

Georgie Bellin was the presenter at the museum. She has been a real estate agent, developer, City Council member and mayor in town.

While her talk was somewhat interesting, it left me with more questions. There was no time allotted for Q&A, which was unfortunate.

It was also unfortunate that she spoke to an audience who she believed had lived in Chico “forever” so those of us rather newcomers were left out because we don’t have the memories or knowledge she spoke about.

She could have used an editor for her presentation as well—less about her, more about the topic. Some nuts and bolts would have been good, too, like how many people live in Cal Park, the number of single-family residences, condos and other types of housing. A visual timeline would have been helpful.

What I liked best is seeing the old photos before the land was developed. It always amazes me how people have a vision for a blank canvas, and can figure out how all the pieces will cohesively fit together.

The Simmons family owned the land. They were cattle ranchers.

How big of a parcel Graham acquired was not revealed, nor was the price.

In 1973, Graham built the Pavilion, which is a community center of sorts. The local recreation district has owned it since 2011. This was the first structure in Cal Park.

Graham’s plan called for a marina, man-made lakes, pools, tennis courts and an equestrian center with lakeside homes selling for about $25,000.

The lakes are in and many houses, but the rest never came to fruition.

“Graham left Chico bankrupt,” Bellin said. She said people vandalized his equipment and that there was an anti-Cal Park campaign in the 1980s with the slogan “No Way San Jose”—as in the locals didn’t want to be anything like the Bay Area.

Several builders eventually contributed to developing what is now Cal Park. The last subdivision in the bigger development is where I live—Village Green—which is about 8-years-old. Bellin doesn’t seem to know about it based on her listing the homeowners’ associations and leaving this one out.

What Bellin didn’t mention is how at least one of the developers sold off land to the city of Chico that was going to be part of Cal Park. This acreage was incorporated into Upper Bidwell Park. That was a bit of a brush by in the previous week’s talk.

I hope there is another talk about Cal Park in the future because with just the number of questions I have there is plenty of material to be shared.