California State University, Chico
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The South Campus Neighborhood Project is an award-winning neighborhood improvement planning effort coordinated by the Resilient Cities Initiative at California State University, Chico and the Public Works-Engineering Division at the City of Chico, CA. The project is focused on the public rights-of-way in Chico, California’s South Campus Neighborhood, a six by seven square-block area bound by 2nd Street to the North, 9th Street to the South, Orange Street to the West and Salem Street to the East. Immediately adjacent to both downtown Chico and the University, it is Chico’s oldest residential neighborhood and was laid out by the town’s founder, John Bidwell, in the 1860’s. The neighborhood today is densely populated with university students and is also home to a number of small businesses, restaurants, bars, churches, community organizations, a school, a fire station, a police station, a railway station and transit center. Given its location, population and mixed uses, the neighborhood faces a unique set of circumstances and challenges. This three-year project aims to assess existing conditions related to a number these circumstances and to develop a neighborhood improvement plan to address them. The existing conditions assessment is focused on neighborhood history and character, the urban forest, transportation, street lighting and criminal activity. The neighborhood improvement plan will focus on concepts for complete streets and public works that enhance public health and safety, quality of life, sense of place and environmental sustainability. Over three academic years, 600 students in courses across eight departments and four academic colleges have contributed over 12,000 hours of applied work to the Project.

Recent developments in climate technology now allow weather patterns to be predicted by zip code. The students of Community Service Practice in Geography, a course at California State University, Chico, are collaborating with community organizations to predict the future. Community Service Practice in Geography, also known as GEOG 506S, is a course offered by the Geography & Planning Department of California State University, Chico. The department designed the course to provide students an opportunity to deepen their understanding of geography and planning through an applied research project, as well as expose them to the everyday workings of a planning department in a medium-size town. The theme for the Fall 2016 edition of GEOG 506 is Chico 2030-2050. With assistance from staff at the CEC, students will use the Cal-Adapt climate tools to forecast the climate in Chico for the period 2030-2050. With the data in hand, students will then meet with key staff at the City of Chico to catalog potential impacts to the community. The class will use this site to report on the possible mitigations to greenhouse gas production and the adaptations available to climate change that are already taking place.

Institute for Sustainable Development staff have supported development and provided review of Climate Action Planning and GHG emissions inventorying at the community-wide level for the City of Chico Community Development Department for a number of years. Most recently, in 2017, this involved helping the City refine their annual emissions inventorying protocol and estimate emissions for the years 2005-2015 to help track and guide implementation of the CIty's 2020 CAP.

http://www.chico2030.com/ http://www.chicosustainability.org/