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Chico adopts Stormwater Master Plan to guide flood control, detention projects and updated fees
Summary
Chico’s City Council adopted a new Stormwater Master Plan that updates hydraulic models and floodplain mapping across Chico’s watersheds and lays out a set of prioritized storm drainage capital projects and fee updates to fund them.
The City Council unanimously approved a new Stormwater Master Plan that maps flood risks across Chico’s watersheds, identifies capital projects to address existing drainage deficiencies and provides a framework for long‑term, strategic stormwater planning.
Key points from the presentation
David Keane, senior public works engineer, said the plan updates the city’s hydraulic modeling, performs watershed delineation across Big Chico Creek, Mud Creek, Little Chico Creek and Butte Creek, and produces updated floodplain mapping for 2‑, 10‑, 50‑ and 100‑year events. He described detention basins as a core outcome — facilities that hold short‑term runoff to lower downstream peak flows — and showed example project sites and GIS layers with existing pipe networks and manholes.
The plan builds on earlier work: the last full storm‑drain master plan dated to 1987, with updates in 2001; a 2011 general plan action called for a new plan and Wood Rogers was retained in 2021 to prepare this update. Keane said the city coordinated with Butte County as part of the study and used consultant work to create a prioritized list of CIP projects.
Public comment and next steps
Katie Toma, executive director of the Chico Builders Association, thanked staff for outreach and urged the city to pursue levee accreditation where possible; she requested staff direct efforts to accredit levees that would support future development opportunities. Keane confirmed the county, as local maintaining agency for some levees, will pursue accreditation and the city will coordinate as impacted jurisdiction.
Funding and implementation
Keane said capital projects identified in the plan will be integrated into pavement or other capital projects where feasible. Staff recommended updating the storm drainage development impact fees (nexus study) and directing fees into the storm drainage facility fund (fund 309), which will be the primary funding source for future projects.
What the council voted to do
Council voted to adopt the Stormwater Master Plan and directed staff to integrate projects into the city’s capital improvement program and to update the development impact fee nexus study and fund 309 for storm drainage projects. The vote was unanimous (7–0).
Speakers
- David Keane, Public Works Engineering (presenter) - Katie Toma, Executive Director, Chico Builders Association (public comment)
Topics: stormwater planning; floodplain mapping; detention basins; development impact fees.
