The Chico City Council’s recent decision to move forward with Option #2 for the redesign of South Park Drive in Bidwell Park is deeply disappointing and fundamentally flawed. This plan, at a cost of over $2.5 million, closes the park to vehicle traffic — limiting access for the elderly, disabled, and families with young children, potentially violating ADA requirements.

It also adds a third large ingress/egress on Woodland Avenue and relocates another to a narrower, more disruptive location —causing safety and congestion concerns for nearby residents and for schoolchildren walking to school. Furthermore, these new entrances are misaligned from nearby cross streets, pointing traffic directly at homes. Most notably, this costly redesign addresses no real problems. City data shows zero vehicle-related injury accidents within the park, undermining any justification for such drastic changes.

The only benefit in Option #2 is the long-overdue repaving — yet this could be accomplished far more efficiently with Option #4, which simply replaces the road as-is and is the least expensive alternative. Despite overwhelming public input in favor of Option #4, four council members (van Overbeek, Winslow, Goldstein and Hawley) landed on an option that wasn’t even recommended to them. Worse, no formal community survey was conducted.

We call on the council-members who voted “yes” to Option #2 to reconsider. Bring the item back to council and align your decision with the will of the people, approve Option #4. Chico deserves smart, data-driven policy — not a costly redesign that solves nothing.

— Nichole Nava, Chico

Editor’s note: Every Sunday, we will select one letter from the previous seven days as our “Letter of the Week.” We’re choosing the letter that, in our view, stands as the best example of civil, thoughtful and fact-based commentary with extra points given on occasion for originality.