North Chico

North Chico is the city’s rural northern edge — a broad sweep of orchards, creek corridors and country roads in the 95973 ZIP code, much of it unincorporated Butte County. The name covers the farm roads around Garner Lane, Keefer Road and Meridian Avenue on both sides of Highway 99, north of Eaton Road, where Chico’s subdivisions give way to working agricultural land.

The landscape is defined by water and orchards. Rock Creek crosses the north, Mud Creek and Keefer Slough run through the middle, and Sycamore Creek marks the south. Walnut and almond orchards still blanket much of the ground — one 93-acre Garner Lane walnut orchard became Autumn Park, forty one-acre homesites, around the turn of the millennium — carrying on an agricultural tradition that reaches back to John Bidwell’s Rancho Chico.

Homes here are single-family and spread out. In the subdivisions east of Highway 99, lots run about a half acre; out along Keefer Road, parcels of one to five acres are common, with room for outbuildings, gardens, small farms and stables. Shasta Elementary, a Chico Unified campus on Leora Court, sits on the northwest side, and 36-acre DeGarmo Park on the Esplanade — ball fields, turf fields, a playground, a dog park and walking paths — anchors recreation nearby. Highway 99 interchanges at Garner Lane and Eaton Road keep the rest of Chico within easy reach, and Chico Regional Airport forms the area’s eastern landmark.

Browse the North Chico homes for sale below for a little more elbow room, Chico style.