City of Biggs
Where the People Own the Water and Power
Biggs Annexation Plan
City of Biggs Phased Annexation Plan: Following its award of a Senate Bill (SB) 2 Planning Grant, the City of Biggs proposes to increase housing opportunities with the City’s sphere of influence by annexing and pre-zoning approximately 520 acres adjacent to the eastern city limits (see Phased Annexation Plan Map). Pre-zone districts will be consistent with existing General Plan designations. Current acreage within the Biggs city limits is approximately 414 acres. The proposed annexation would create a total of approximately 934 acres within the City of Biggs and potential development of approximately 2,380 new housing units. The City’s last General Plan Update in 2014 considered the subject annexation area for future growth. The Phased Annexation Plan is divided into Phase I and Phase II, with Phase II divided into subphases II-A, II-B, and II-C. The phasing sequence is designed to follow existing and planned infrastructure.
Phase I: Phase I involves City-initiated Pre-zone and Annexation applications that are currently being processed by city staff. The Biggs City Council is scheduled to consider the applications at its December 13, 2021 meeting, and subsequently submitting an annexation application to the Butte County Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCo). Final approval of the annexation area would be considered by Butte County LAFCo at a future date.
Pre-zone districts will be consistent with existing General Plan designations as follows: R-1 (Single-Family Residential) - 73.5 acres; R-2 (Medium Density Residential) - 3.2 acres; and C-G (General Commercial) - 2.8 acres. Environmental Review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for Phase I is proposed to be an Initial Study/Negative Declaration (IS/ND) and would consider the pre-zoning, annexation, and municipal infrastructure/service extensions. No construction or other development is proposed by the City or private development with this annexation and pre-zoning.
Phase II: Phase II encompasses three sub-phases (A, B, and C) but does not involve current applications to pre-zone or annex land. Instead, Phase II focuses on a Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the City of Biggs seeking a consultant to develop a Phased Annexation Area Plan document. Once prepared, the Phased Annexation Area Plan will be adopted by the Biggs City Council and maintained by the City of Biggs Planning Department for use by the general public and prospective developers as a resource guide. The Plan document will be divided into Chapters that include the following:
- Project Purpose of all phases of the Plan including public meetings held to-date.
- Recap and status of Phase I.
- Preliminary Engineering and Infrastructure Analysis.
- Preliminary Circulation Patterns.
- Master Environmental Assessment-Overview.
- Development Opportunities and Constraints Analysis.
The purpose of the Plan document is to outline a predictable development process for the public and development interests, where extensive background research and public outreach has been conducted and is included. While a developer would still need to submit development applications to the City of Biggs (such as annexation, subdivision, and rezone applications), and conduct individual environmental review for each respective project, the Phased Annexation Plan is intended to reduce a significant portion of associated front-end expenses and risks.