Many people are concerned about the sprawl of Chico State University, including the planned Natural History Museum surrounding Bidwell Mansion. The museum and parking lot, along with a mammoth new university classroom building, will dwarf the mansion.

A major associated problem is the traffic congestion at this end of The Esplanade. The museum alone will add 4,000 to 5,000 cars per month, with a dramatic increase when the new classroom building is completed. The next concern is the playing field next to the mansion, where generations of children have played, and which the neighborhood fought to preserve a decade ago. Some believe we cannot afford open space close to downtown and the university. Why not? Some of the best-planned cities carefully include open space.

Next, Mansion Park is one of the few unique and historic neighborhoods left in the state, an irreplaceable and distinct contrast to the housing tracts mushrooming around the country. How many old and unusual neighborhoods have to be erased in the name of progress? What happens when disenchanted neighbors leave?

If Aymer Jay Hamilton Hall is going to be razed anyway, it would be an acceptable trade-off location for the museum. And Chico State should expand in another direction, not into the treasured, historic areas of our town. It's now or never for Chico; preserve it or to kiss it goodbye. To join with others in protecting our town contact chicocreek@sunset.net.

Jeanne Thatcher, Chico