It”s not very surprising that Tiffany Revelle”s story on Lakeport”s latest golf subdivision proposal (“Lakeport examines golf course,” Dec. 28 Lake County Record-Bee) seems unbalanced, since it relies entirely on information provided by Mayor Roy Parmentier and developer Jim Burns. No one else appears to have been consulted not the Lakeport residents who have already spoken out, not the County of Lake, even though County rather than City has jurisdiction over the land, not the environmental community, not even Lakeport”s own Community Development Director.
Omission of significant environmental and planning impediments gives the misleading impression that the project is an unmixed ecological blessing meriting broad support. The site”s location under the Lampson Field flight path, adjacent to the newly-approved Keithly Quarry access road, and outside the Urban Growth Boundaries specified by the County”s new General Plan: not mentioned. Potential discharge of treated wastewater into Clear Lake during the winter months: not mentioned. Negative impacts to the Full Circle project: not mentioned. The same developers” involvement in the massive proposed Cristallago subdivision northwest of Lakeport and their interest in acquiring the Dutch Harbor/Natural High site: not mentioned. Their payment (nothing) for an option on the City”s property: not mentioned. The parcel”s current zoning (“Open Space/Airport Approach”): not mentioned.
Potential economic barriers are indeed mentioned, but without the specifics that would reveal their gravity. Is there really a market for either a golf course or a residential subdivision on a site that has been used for many years as a sewage treatment facility, lies under an airport landing pattern, and is shaken by a parade of tumultous gravel trucks? Personally, I doubt it.
Victoria Brandon
Chair, Sierra Club Lake Group
Lower Lake
