LAKEPORT In an effort to begin fixing the ailing Kelseyville wastewater treatment plant as quickly as possible, a proposal to swap sewer hook-ups in exchange for over $1 million dollars of upgrades to the plant came before the board of supervisors on Tuesday.
The Kelseyville plant has been operating under a cease-and-desist order from the California Regional Water Control Board, primarily for “capacity problems which have resulted in emergency measures including the sandbagging of two ponds to create additional temporary storage and prevent overflow. …[because] the facility is operating at, or exceeding, the designed treatment capacity.”
The proposed agreement between DAS Homes, the developer who currently has a tentative parcel map approved for “Meadow View Estates,” a subdivision of approximately 28 acres to create 100 residential lots on Konocti Road in Kelseyville and Lake County Special Districts, would give a financial jump-start to making the required upgrades in exchange for 254 new sewer connections somewhere else within the Kelseyville water system.
The Meadow View Estates proposal was before the Planning Commission on June 8 and was approved with conditions, according to Rick Coel, Community Development Department assistant director.
“There are a lot of conditions,” Coel said, “road widening, drainage, surveys and the Wilkerson Road bridge crossing.”
The tentative map for the development can be appealed to the board of supervisors by concerned citizens and neighbors, Coel said, and they have until 5 p.m. Friday, June 23 to do so.
The Meadow View Estates subdivision is for 100 home lots now but a future phase of the subdivision calls for 154 additional connections, which is part of the deal.
“They don”t have entitlements for that much development,” Coel said of the current Meadow View Estates subdivision tentative approval.
The cease-and-desist order required a Long Term Wastewater Master Plan be developed with a timeline to address the issues and states that by July 1, a revenue plan describing the costs associated with making the improvements is due.
“However, the district currently does not have adequate funding to implement the improvements and grant and loan funding will not be available until late this year at the earliest,” said Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger, in his memo to the board.
“A development proposal such as this would allow improvements to be made sooner and with a value of over $1 million. This would demonstrate our commitment to making significant improvements on an interim basis while we assemble grant and loan funding for additional work.”
In exchange for upgrading the sewer plant, DAS Homes would receive 254 connections but there are strings attached.
The first 100 connections, “can”t be released until the developer has received Planning Commission approval for its tentative parcel map for Phase 1 of the Meadow View Estates subdivision,” which they have, but neither Coel nor District 5 Planning Commissioner Gilbert Schoux in telephone interviews referred to the plan as the first phase, but as a complete subdivision.
Another would be that the connections wouldn”t be available until the developer “has dedicated and conveyed the sewer main line extension into the District” and follow the normal process, including a public hearing and Planning Commission approval.
The 154 remaining connections will expire six years after the developer has notified the District that the connections won”t be used in subsequent phases of Meadow View Estates – which aren”t a part of the current proposal, that only calls for 100.
The District can, at a later date, buy those unused 154 connections back from the developer, after a “subsequent agreement has been executed that is satisfactory to the District.”
However, since the 15-day appeal process is not over yet, District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown, sitting as a board of director of the Kelseyville Water Works, asked for the item to be continued until July.
“I”m waiting to hear what folks around that area think about it,” Brown said.
The proposed developer agreement with DAS Homes will be back before the board on July 11.
Contact Terre Logsdon at tlogsdon@record-bee.com
