KELSEYVILLE — It isn”t over yet. But when asked whether or not he thought the Rivieras Area Plan would be concluded at tonight”s county Board of Supervisors” meeting, District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown said, “I hope so.”
The sentiment was shared by Senior Planner Emily Minton, who has shepherded the project alongside Community Development Director Rick Coel.
The area plan answers the call of the county”s General Plan, developed in 1981, for an area plan to be developed for all areas around the county, said Minton.
The plan encompasses an area in central Kelseyville, including shoreline property from the State Park as far south and east as Jago Bay, with the southern border extending to just south of Highway 29.
The proposed zoning has three goals, Minton said: to zone property according to how it is currently being used; to direct where development may occur; and to decrease the allowable density due to the steepness of the terrain at the base of Mount Konocti, possible fire hazards, landslide risks and inadequate access.
The county Board of Supervisors got involved as part of the process at its Dec. 19 meeting when Coel and Minton brought the plan as a draft before the BOS for approval. There was so much public input from the area”s residents that after four hours, the discussion had to be carried over to tonight”s meeting in order to hear it all.
The county”s planning commission has been hashing out issues brought to them by the residents of the Rivieras Area in Kelseyville over its past six meetings.
Among the more controversial issues is the zoning of parcels surrounding Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa for purposes the resort”s potential buyers Darius Anderson and partner Jay Wallace of Kenwood Investments and Platimum Advisors have said is for future expansion, in chorus with its current owners” attorney Peter Windrem.
Windrem and representatives from Kenwood Investments have appeared before the planning commission several times to request commercial resort zoning and General Plan designation for an approximately 20-acre parcel sandwiched between the Riviera West housing development and Soda Bay Road to the resort”s west.
An approximately 57-acre walnut orchard to the south of the resort, owned by the Mazzola and Kennedy families, has also been under zoning scrutiny from both sides.
Members of the Riviera West housing subdivision, across Soda Bay Road from the resort, have not wavered in their opposition to repeated requests by Windrem and various representatives from Platinum Advisors to adopt commercial resort zoning for two parcels surrounding the resort. They cite noise, light and lack of infrastructure including road access as potential hazards.
Also an item of controversy is the fate of the Clearlake West golf course and housing subdivision. The property is currently owned by the Gilbert family, who expressed at the last BOS hearing their difficulty in making the golf course economically viable, and their desire to have the fairways rezoned for the purpose of allowing for residential development.
Members of the already existing homeowners” association in the area spoke out against the idea, saying they did not want a community within a community over which the association”s CC&Rs would have no effect.
Minton said she expects that both of these issues will be back before the BOS tonight, as well as a few others not discussed yet.
“No matter what happens, you can”t please everybody,” said Brown. “The committee, with Rick and Emily have done such a good job to this point, and I”m confident that the recommendations made (today) will be something we can stand on.”
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
