The Avenues was a strategic visioning exercise in Chico, to help the community quantify its goals while developing specific approaches to meeting those goals.

The residents of the Avenues neighborhood wanted improved streetscapes leading to both an improved retail environment and a better residential neighborhood.

With considerable community involvement during a charette process, excellent input and a clear vision emerged, and the resulting analysis and recommendations have been adopted as official goals, helping to guide planning in this portion of Chico.

The residents of the Avenues neighborhood made clear the things they wanted: complete streets and improved streetscapes leading to both an improved retail environment and a better residential neighborhood.

The neighborhood association was very involved from the inception of the process through the charette process. The existing conditions and space inventory were led by members of the neighborhood association on bicycles, covering the entire scope of the study area. After the document was presented to the community, it was embraced with such enthusiasm that the neighborhood association fought to champion it with the City Council, and succeeded.