LAKEPORT — The Lakeport City Council meeting on Tuesday saw several citizens stepping up to the podium during a public hearing regarding a right-of-way ordinance that is currently being reworked by city officials to include loan possibilities that help fund homeowners projects.
The ordinance stresses the inclusion of sidewalks and carports, among other components; citizens on Tuesday argued that solar incentives be included in the plan.
Suzanne Lyons of Lakeport said her argument against the city council had to do with their idea of how expensive and “unrealistic” their view of solar installation is.
“One of the things brought up at the last meeting was that solar is expensive. But two houses out of four on my block have gone solar. You say it takes $98,000 to put solar on a house, but I had solar put on my house for $16,000,” Lyons said.
She said that the $45,000 implementation threshold the council ended up passing unanimously as part of ordinance 867 does not encourage people to install solar power on their homes, and that requirements such as sidewalks and carports quickly eat up the money.
“You”re trying to get people to put in carports and sidewalks and after you do that, suddenly you find yourself up there at that $45,000 really quickly,” said Lyons in her address.
City Council member Ronald Bertsch responded, “Last month a permit was pulled to put solar in that cost $20,000, with a $4,000 rebate. We”re raising it to $45,000, and unless you”re building a new house, I don”t see how you”re going to have to put in sidewalks,” said Bertsch.
Another citizen, Sharon Holden, asked the council to provide incentives for Lakeport residents to install solar energy.
City engineer Scott Harter said that other than PG&E, no incentives were available. “There are none that the city provides,” said Harter.
“I think it”s forward thinking to make as many inducements, because something like solar energy that feeds back into our infrastructure benefits our community. I would definitely endorse that. I think it would be a mistake to not encourage people to put in solar,” said Holden.
The city council members and staff thanked citizens for their input, and members carried through with the motion to approve the ordinance.
“One of the unique and unusual things is that we are currently reworking and retooling this ordinance,” said Harter.
Additional items on the meeting agenda included a motion to approve the catastrophic leave policy, the donation of sick time by employees of the city to other employees in need, and a right-of-way deferral request wherein a citizen of Lakeport entered into a contract for her home for $45,000, exceeded that amount, stopped construction, and requested a deferral. The city council noted that under the new ordinance, the citizen would be under the limit, therefore in 30 days it would be a moot point.
“I think it”s a little ridiculous for the city to give a loan, and then have that person ask for a deferral after construction. We need to have a plan for this in the future,” said city council member Jim Irwin.
The motion was passed by the council to postpone the issue for 30 days, at which point the new ordinance would be underway.
The last item on the agenda was the cape seal project, a roadway improvement project in Lakeport. Bids were opened Aug. 2 for contractors for the project. Last winter the project was postponed.
The council followed staff recommendations and carried the motion to approve the bid process, citing a revised plan, and that the project would be started this year.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com.
