GRIDLEY -- Gridley and Biggs got a message Tuesday night that they may not have anticipated: Reach an agreement or Butte County might just take over.

Tuesday, the city councils of both Gridley and Biggs, along with the Butte County Board of Supervisors, met in a rare joint session.

The only thing on the agenda was a roughly 2,700-acre chunk of land, called the "area of concern," that lies between the two south-county communities.

Both of the cities want to control large and overlapping parts of the land for future residential development.

However, right now, the area of concern is entirely within the county's jurisdiction.

For more than two hours, Gridley City Manager Jack Slota and Tom Lando, a consultant for the city of Biggs and former Chico city manager, spent most of their time listing things they could agree on.

The two cities can work together on sewage concerns, on electrical infrastructure, on an overpass over the railroad tracks, on drainage, and on provision of medical services.

Lando and Slota concurred that the two cities are more in agreement than they are in disagreement.

"We currently share law enforcement, animal control and maintenance of the electricity system, and both tax bases support the hospital and ambulance service," Slota explained during the meeting in the multi-purpose room of Gridley High School.

Lando said both municipalities will have to find ways to work together on the future placement and development along Highway 99.

They also agree that the land in the area of concern, which is now largely in agricultural uses, should ultimately be built as an urban development, but they disagree on in which city the development will take place.

Lando explained that Biggs has yet to officially start its general plan revision process, but developers, who want to use a good portion of the area of concern, have agreed to fund the city's general plan effort to get things moving.

"We are talking to specific owners with a specific plan, who want to deal with one jurisdiction," said Lando.

Slota said Gridley is well into its general plan effort and that the city is paying its own bill and not relying on a developer to fund the project.

Lando said the developers understand the funding will have no impact on the way the city's general plan is written, but he also added Biggs "feels strongly" about the line they want.

He and Slota said their councils could look at their areas of agreement, while they both independently conduct their own planning efforts on the disputed land.

However, Curt Josiassen, who chairs the Board of Supervisors, pointed out that besides the two cities, there was another player in the game who could trump their efforts if necessary.

"There is another elephant in the room and that's the five of us sitting here," said Josiassen, referring to himself and the other supervisors. He said all of the land in question is in county jurisdiction.

"People seem to think this board will sit here and play footsie with everybody until we get this fixed," he continued.

He said the county won't be put in the position of guarding the disputed space and refuse other property owners in the area the right to develop their land, and not expect to get a share of the revenue that may come from development elsewhere in the area of concern.

"I think if we are allowed to work through this, we will reach an agreement," said Lando, a point that Slota seconded.

The Gridley city manager, who is retiring this week, said he was "optimistic" that an agreement is possible without county intervention.

Slota and Lando said their respective councils will take the listed areas of agreement into discussion and use the positives as a way to build a framework of agreement that could reach an overall accord.

None of the three panels took any specific action Tuesday night.

Staff writer Roger H. Aylworth can be reached at 896-7762 or raylworth@chicoer.com.