Save Downtown Chico — Revive the Revitalization Project

Section 01 The case for revitalization

Downtown is built to drive through, not to be in.

Three travel lanes in each direction on Main and Broadway optimize for one thing: getting across town. They don't make downtown a place worth stopping. The result, year after year, is closed storefronts, empty patios, and a core that only feels alive on Thursday nights — when the streets are closed to cars.

The Downtown Revitalization Project — Alternative 1 — fixes that. Wider sidewalks for outdoor dining, real on-street loading for businesses, calmer traffic, safer crossings, and a real bike connection from Bidwell Park into downtown. Caltrans pays 80–92% of the cost if we apply by June 22.⁷

Downtown storefronts closed in the last year

Doing nothing is the experiment that's already failing

$40–50M

Alternative 1 estimated cost

Caltrans covers 80–92% via ATP; city matches 8–20%¹⁶⁷

Jun 22

Caltrans ATP Cycle 8 deadline

Miss it → wait ~2 years for Cycle 9⁷

Pedestrian crashes on Main & Broadway, 2021–2025

Most cited cause: drivers failing to yield in crosswalks²⁴

Twelve closures. One year. One downtown.

These are the storefronts that left in the last year alone.

Panama Bar & Cafe

Cheers Chico

The Winchester Goose

Tomfoolery Gifts & Gadgets

Momona

Coin-Op

Smokin' Mo's

Collier Hardware

Starbucks

Woodzee

Lulu's Warehouse

Lulu's Outlet

Some closed for one reason, some for another — but ask anyone who lives here and the picture is the same: downtown is hurting under the current design. The opposition's pitch is "don't change anything." That's the experiment we just ran. It's not working.

Rendering of Broadway at 3rd Street under Alternative 1 — wider sidewalks, outdoor seating, street trees, a protected bike lane, and people walking and dining instead of three lanes of traffic — Wider sidewalks. Outdoor seating. People, not just cars.

Same Broadway, same block, same buildings — designed to invite people to stop, eat, shop, and stay. This is the version where downtown businesses get foot traffic instead of pass-through traffic.

Main Street today: three travel lanes, narrow sidewalks, no bike infrastructure — Three undifferentiated travel lanes. Narrow sidewalks. No bike infrastructure. ¹

Main Street under Alternative 1: two travel lanes, wider sidewalk, protected one-way bike lane — Two travel lanes. Widened sidewalk. A protected one-way bike lane buffered from traffic.

Broadway today: three travel lanes, narrow sidewalks, no bike infrastructure — Same story on Broadway today: three travel lanes, narrow sidewalks, nowhere safe to bike.

Broadway under Alternative 1: two travel lanes, wider sidewalk, protected one-way bike lane, flex parking — Two travel lanes. Wider sidewalks. Protected bike lane in the opposite direction. Flex parking.

→ Cross-sections from City of Chico Downtown Revitalization Project documents.

Downtown Chico project area map, showing the corridor from 2nd to 5th on Main & Broadway — Project area — Main & Broadway, 2nd to 5th City of Chico project documents

Six blocks. That's the whole argument.

Every block within the dashed line gets wider sidewalks, calmer traffic, real loading zones for delivery trucks, and the kind of street businesses can actually grow on. The orange dots mark the intersections that get real fixes.

Broadway & 2nd — curb extensions, shorter crossings, calmer traffic City of Chico AR

Broadway & 3rd — flex parking, painted buffer, protected lane City of Chico AR

Main & 2nd — new protected bike crossing and widened sidewalk City of Chico AR

→ Click any rendering to explore the City of Chico's interactive 360° AR tour of Alternative 1. Full set at downtownchicoplan.com.

Widened sidewalks

Room for outdoor dining, sidewalk seating, benches, and walking with a friend without single-filing. Today's Broadway sidewalks are barely 6 feet wide in places.

Flex parking & loading zones

On-street spaces that work as loading/pickup during delivery hours and as regular customer parking the rest of the day. Better for businesses than the current double-park-and-block-traffic system.

Safer, shorter crossings

Curb extensions, better signals, and shorter pedestrian distances at the intersections people already cross. Easier for shoppers, families, and older neighbors.

Protected bike lanes

A real bike connection through downtown — separated from traffic by a striped buffer and flex zone. More foot traffic, less worry about getting hit.

Bidwell Park connection

The first safe bike-and-walk connection between the park and downtown businesses. Right now there isn't one.

Source: City of Chico project page at downtownchicoplan.com and chicoca.gov capital projects.

Section 02 What just happened

The vote, laid out.

NO — killed it³

YES — supported³

RECUSED³

District 2 · VOTED NO

Kasey Reynolds

Mayor

District 3 · VOTED NO

Dale Bennett

Vice Mayor

District 1 · VOTED NO

Mike O'Brien

Councilmember

District 4 · VOTED YES

Addison Winslow

Councilmember

District 7 · VOTED YES

Bryce Goldstein

Councilmember

District 5 · VOTED YES

Katie Hawley

Councilmember

District 6 · RECUSED

Tom Van Overbeek

Councilmember

Recused — owns downtown property with tenants Parkside Tap House, Metric Cosmetics, and KRCR

THE SWING VOTE.

Mayor Kasey Reynolds — District 2

On April 7 she voted no but said she was "close to voting yes."⁴ She asked for one more input session. The session happened. A record crowd showed up. She voted no again anyway.³

SOURCE: Action News Now, April 20, 2026

Timeline

Jan 17, 2023

On the agenda

"Redesigning streets first" placed on the Council agenda as a path to a downtown revitalization.

Feb 7, 2023

First discussion & vote

Council takes up the redesign concept for the first time and votes to move it forward.

Dec 2023

Internal Affairs Committee recommends it

IAC votes to recommend moving the project forward — motion by Tom, seconded by Kasey Reynolds.

Mar 5, 2024

Council delays for more input

Council puts the project off for more community input — causing Chico to miss the 2024–2025 ATP grant cycle entirely.

May 2025

Community workshops

Old Municipal Building drop-in sessions — majority of comment favorable.¹

Apr 7, 2026

First vote: 3–3 tie

Mayor Reynolds votes no but says she's 'close to voting yes' — agrees to one more input session.⁴⁵

Apr 14, 2026

Final input session

Record public turnout. Young residents and families overwhelmingly supportive.³

Apr 21, 2026

Killed: 3–3

Reynolds votes no again. Alternative 1 fails. Van Overbeek recused for business-ownership reasons.³

Jun 22, 2026

Grant deadline

Caltrans ATP Cycle 8 applications close. After this, the city waits ~2 years for Cycle 9 and walks away from tens of millions in state funding.⁷

Nov 3, 2026

Election Day

District 2 (Reynolds) on the ballot.¹⁸

Section 03The case, claim by claim

The economic case is settled. The rest of the objections fall apart with it.

The headline objection is "this will hurt downtown businesses." Every credible study of streets that actually got redesigned says the opposite — and the status quo is already closing storefronts. Tap the first claim for the receipts. The other six are the standard road-diet fears, and they've failed everywhere they've been tested too.

Twelve downtown storefronts closed in the last year under the existing three-lanes-each-direction design. "Don't change anything" is the experiment we just ran, and it didn't work. Meanwhile, every credible study of streets that actually got redesigned points the other way. After NYC installed a protected bike lane on 9th Avenue, retail sales jumped 49% vs. 3% borough-wide. Salt Lake City's 300 South redesign — which removed 30% of on-street parking — saw sales grow 8.8% vs. 7% citywide, and 59% of business owners supported the change after it was built. A 2020 Portland State study across 14 corridors in six cities found positive or statistically-insignificant impacts on retail everywhere it looked. A 2021 peer-reviewed review of 23 North American studies concluded that "fears of disastrous consequences for local businesses are unfounded." Strong Towns has documented the same effect over and over: streets built for all users see higher commercial property values and lower vacancy rates. The slow-pace, walkable street invites people to spend time — and money. Three travel lanes optimized for driving through downtown invite the opposite.⁹¹⁰¹¹¹²²⁰²¹²²²³

Sources

On the record

"You make it two lanes and you're going to have bumper-to-bumper traffic and more accidents when people are trying to pull out."

— Carol Munson, owner, Fifth Street Clothing Company · KRCR, April 7, 2026⁵

Chicago DOT studied this exact prediction on Kinzie Street. Eastbound morning travel time went up by under a minute. Westbound got faster. Evening rush improved in both directions.¹³

Section 04 The recusal question

One councilmember recused.
Mayor Reynolds didn't.

Tom Van Overbeek owns — as he puts it — "half a block" in downtown Chico, renting to Parkside Tap House, Metric Cosmetics, and the KRCR news station.¹⁹ He recused himself from both votes.³ That's what California's Political Reform Act asks of an official with a financial interest in a decision in front of them.²⁵²⁶

Map of downtown Chico showing the Downtown Revitalization Project area (Main & Broadway, 2nd to 9th) and the location of Shubert's Ice Cream — Mayor Reynolds' family business — sitting inside the project boundary. — Project area + Shubert's location Inside the project boundary

The rule

Cal. Gov. Code §87100

Under California's Political Reform Act, a public official may not make, participate in, or use their position to influence a governmental decision in which they have a financial interest.²⁵

§87103 defines that financial interest broadly — it includes any business entity in which the official has a $2,000+ ownership interest, any source of $500+ in income in the prior twelve months, and any business entity in which the official holds a position of management.²⁶

You don't have to own the building. Owning the business — or drawing income from it, or running it — is, on its own, a qualifying interest.

Read §87103 →

What Van Overbeek did

Recused.

He owns roughly half a block of downtown property — tenants include Parkside Tap House, Metric Cosmetics, and KRCR's Chico newsroom. The project would reshape the streets his buildings sit on. So he stepped out of both votes. Textbook compliance.

What Mayor Reynolds did

Cast the deciding no vote.

The Reynolds family business, Shubert's Ice Cream & Candy at 178 E. 7th Street,¹⁵ sits inside the Downtown Revitalization Project area — half a block off Main, well within the project's construction footprint. She did not recuse. She did not publicly disclose the conflict on the record. Then she cast the deciding vote that killed the project — twice.³

How the business-entity analysis works

Step 1 — The interest

Owner. Manager. Source of income.

§87103(a) · (c) · (d)

Mayor Reynolds is a co-owner of Shubert's, holds a position of management, and draws income from the business — all disclosed on her own publicly-filed Form 700.

That clears the §87103 threshold three different ways — independent of who holds the deed.²⁶

Step 2 — Foreseeability

"Realistic possibility — more than hypothetical."

FPPC Reg. 18701(b)

The standard isn't certainty of a financial impact. It's whether one is a realistic possibility.⁸

Multi-month street reconstruction directly outside the door — changes to traffic flow, on-street parking, sidewalk frontage, the character of the block — meets that bar by any reasonable read, regardless of whether you think the long-term effect on revenue is positive or negative.

Step 3 — No "public generally" escape

A few blocks downtown isn't "the public generally."

FPPC Reg. 18703

A conflicted official can sometimes still vote if the same effect hits a "significant segment" — at least 25% — of the businesses in their jurisdiction.²⁸

The downtown project area is a small fraction of Chico's businesses — well under the 25% threshold. Councilmember Van Overbeek already worked through this analysis with the FPPC for this same project area, and concluded he had to recuse. The exception doesn't get Mayor Reynolds out from under §87100 either.

The recusal would have flipped the vote.

With Mayor Reynolds recused alongside Councilmember Van Overbeek, Alternative 1 passes 3–2 and the project moves to the Caltrans grant application. Instead, on the strength of one vote that §87100 arguably should have kept off the dais, Chico is on track to walk away from tens of millions of dollars in state funding. The most useful thing you can do now is email all seven councilmembers and ask Mayor Reynolds to put Alternative 1 back on the agenda before June 22.

Email the council →

Section 05The supporter wall

Add your name.
Show the council how many of us there are.

Every name on this wall is a Chico resident who wants the Downtown Revitalization Project back on the agenda before the June 22 grant deadline. The list grows in real time — when you add your name it appears here within seconds.

Chico supporters on the record

Momentum is building. Add yours.

The wall of supporters

Vangs Plants & Succulents Hub

Downtown business

Spruce Studio Films

Downtown business

Outlier Architecture

Downtown business

Upper Park Clothing

Downtown business

The Westport Event Venue

Downtown business

Lovebird Coffee

Downtown business

MC&Co Salon

Downtown business

Golden Thread Strategies

Downtown business

Aca Taco

Downtown business

Peter Washington Law

Downtown business

Poppy & Fig Clothing

Downtown business

Social High Rise

Downtown business

Second Cousin Gallery

Downtown business

Stoble Coffee

Downtown business

Anika Burke

Downtown business

Adema Environmental

Downtown business

Rawbar

Downtown business

Law Office of Davis Hewitt

Downtown business

Lili’s Brazilian Bistro

Downtown business

Chico Velo

Downtown business

Sign Club

Downtown business

Letters on file20 signed letters of support

Downtown didn't just sign on — they wrote letters.

Section 06What you can do right now

Three things you can do. Pick one. Do it before you close this tab.

The council took a record amount of public pressure and still voted no. The antidote isn't outrage — it's volume. More emails, more people at the next meeting, more posters in more windows. Start here.

Pick one — or do them all

Tier 1 · 2 minutes

Email every councilmember

To all 7 councilmembers

kasey.reynolds@chicoca.gov, dale.bennett@chicoca.gov, mike.obrien@chicoca.gov, addison.winslow@chicoca.gov, bryce.goldstein@chicoca.gov, katie.hawley@chicoca.gov, tom.vanoverbeek@chicoca.gov

Random template — edit before sending

SubjectBody (edit before sending)

Councilmembers,

I'm a Chico resident writing to ask you to reconsider the Downtown Revitalization Project — Alternative 1 — before the June 22 Caltrans ATP Cycle 8 grant application deadline.

Downtown is struggling. A dozen storefronts have closed in the last year. Three travel lanes in each direction on Main and Broadway are optimized for driving through downtown, not for being in it — and the result is a place people pass through rather than spend time and money in. Every Thursday Night Market shows what downtown can be when the streets are designed for people. Alternative 1 is how we get that the other six days of the week.

The economic case is settled. Peer-reviewed research and city-by-city data — NYC, Salt Lake City, Portland State's review of 14 corridors, a 2021 review of 23 North American studies — all point the same direction: when streets are redesigned for walking, biking, and lingering, retail sales stay flat or go up. The slower pace and the wider sidewalks are what invite people to stop and shop.

This is a roughly $40–50M project with Caltrans covering 80–92% through the ATP grant if we apply in time. Killing Alternative 1 doesn't save Chico local money — it just walks away from tens of millions of state dollars and pushes the next shot out to Cycle 9, roughly two years away. And as a bonus, Main Street stops being one of the most dangerous corridors in town.

Please put Alternative 1 back on the agenda at the next council meeting and vote yes.

Thank you,
[Your name]
[Your Chico neighborhood / district]

→ Open in your email app

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Tier 2 · Show up

Be in the room May 5 or May 19

City Council · 421 Main St

Tue, May 5, 2026

6:00 PM

Regular City Council meeting.¹⁶

City Council · 421 Main St

Tue, May 19, 2026

6:00 PM

Second meeting in the 60-day window before the grant deadline.¹⁶

Public comment — what works

Say your name and neighborhood. Councilmembers track which districts show up.
Tell one specific story. A near-miss on Broadway. A kid who bikes to Chico Jr. High. A parent who won't let their kid cross Main. Specific beats statistical.
Name Alternative 1 and the June 22 deadline explicitly. Make it easy for the mayor to agendize a reconsideration.
Stay under 2 minutes. Practice out loud once. Land the ask in the last sentence.
Don't yell at the no-voters. Persuade the persuadable watching from home.

Tier 3 · 10 minutes

Amplify — make a poster

Volume online matters as much as volume in the room. Pick a template, swap colors, edit the text, and post it everywhere.

Instagram / Facebook post builder — pick a template, swap colors, edit text, download

MAYOR REYNOLDS

Put it back
on the agenda.

Reconsider Alternative 1 before the June 22 grant deadline.

SAVEDOWNTOWNCHICO · #CHICOCA

Preview · exports at 1080×1080

Size

Template

Color

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Kicker

Headline (Enter for new line)

Call to action

Caption templates for text-first platforms (X, Bluesky, Threads)

X / Bluesky

Hey @MayorReynolds — you ran on a stronger downtown. The Revitalization Project IS that. Please put Alternative 1 back on the agenda before the June 22 grant deadline and give it a real vote. Chico is with you on this. #ChicoCA

X / Bluesky

Mayor Reynolds, you were the swing vote on April 21. You can also be the swing vote that brings the project back. Agendize Alternative 1 for reconsideration. We'll be in the room. #ChicoCA #DowntownChico

X / Bluesky

A polite ask to Mayor Kasey Reynolds: reopen the Downtown Revitalization Project before the June 22 grant deadline. Tens of millions in Caltrans funding are on the line. Let's get this one right, together. #ChicoCA

X / Bluesky

Imagine walking from Bidwell Park to dinner on Broadway without dodging traffic. Imagine your kid biking to Chico Jr. on a protected lane. That's what the Downtown Revitalization Project funds — and Caltrans is paying for most of it. Let's not leave the money on the table. #ChicoCA

X / Bluesky

Cities that widened sidewalks and added bike lanes saw downtown retail sales go UP. Chico has a $50M+ state grant sitting there to do the same thing. Let's take the money and build a downtown worth walking to. #SafeStreetsChico

X / Bluesky

The Downtown Revitalization Project is Chico's chance to be the walkable college town we already tell everyone we are. Wider sidewalks. Outdoor dining. A real bike connection to the park. Mostly paid for by Caltrans. Ask the mayor to bring it back. #ChicoCA

Downtown is built to drive through, not to be in.

The vote, laid out.

The economic case is settled. The rest of the objections fall apart with it.

One councilmember recused. Mayor Reynolds didn't.

Add your name.Show the council how many of us there are.

Downtown didn't just sign on — they wrote letters.

Three things you can do. Pick one. Do it before you close this tab.

Email every councilmember

Be in the room May 5 or May 19

Amplify — make a poster

One councilmember recused.
Mayor Reynolds didn't.

Add your name.
Show the council how many of us there are.