The Chico Avenues Neighborhood Association and Enloe Hospital along with the City of Chico spent many hours and a lot of energy over a period of years to finally agree on a design for a green space buffer between the new hospital tower and the neighborhood. Enloe Park is that buffer and it fulfils one of the last remaining requirements of the Development Agreement between the City of Chico and Enloe Hospital to facilitate Enloe Hospital’s tower expansion. At the same time the hospital was able to construct the new parking lot on West 5th Avenue which is currently being used by the hospital for valet parking. Enloe is now proposing to install 40 fuel cells on the Magnolia side of the valet parking lot. They will be installed in what is now the sloping landscaped area between the parking lot and the sidewalk on the west side of Magnolia. The fuel cells and required site work will eliminate approximately 28 feet by 160 feet of existing landscaped area.
Each fuel cell will produce 70dB of sound at a distance of 6 feet 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 70dB is about the amount of noise a pedestrian hears when a car passes you or if you stand next to a car that’s idling. CANA’s concern is that the sound of the fuel cells will carry into Enloe Park negating the quiet place of refuge it was intended to be used for by Enloe patients, their families, staff, and neighbors. The sound will also carry towards the homes on Arcadian between West 5th and 6th Avenues negating the buffer the Enloe Park green space was designed to mitigate.
As Avenue residents, the CANA Board members are interested in receiving input and comments from other neighborhood residents and would be ready to organize an informational meeting to help answer any questions or concerns.
Contact email is: president@chicoavenues.org
Included as a link is the Bloom Energy Revised Plan and an Artist Renderings link.