LAKEPORT ? Citizens including some members of the Sierra Club Lake Group and other groups plan to present a petition with about 700 signatures to the Lakeport City Council tonight to ask for preservation of the Natural High School/Dutch Harbor site on the northern edge of the downtown area.
The property has been examined by the city in the past as a potential site for a hotel. For that plan to work, the city would need to purchase the Natural High property, owned by the Lakeport Unified School District (LUSD), and combine it with city-owned Dutch Harbor property.
The group of citizens presenting the petition said the city council declined to place the item on its agenda, as did the Lakeport School Board. City Manager Jerry Gillham said he had not heard about the group”s plan to petition and that City Council members and city staff have not discussed purchasing the property during his term there as manager, which began at the beginning of last summer.
City Attorney Steve Brookes said last year there were talks of purchasing the Natural High property, but the school district is at present not interested in selling the property because it still has “a use for the property as a school.” Currently, the sale of the property is not being discussed, he said.
LUSD Superintendent Erin Hagberg confirmed in an e-mail Monday that the district “has not been in negotiations with any developer or the city regarding the sale of the Natural High property.”
“I do have occasional inquiries about the property and one developer did meet with me recently, but right now our board is focusing on the much more pressing issue of the impact the Governor”s proposed budget cuts will have on LUSD,” Hagberg wrote.
In the past few months, Brookes has spoken with a property owner about the city”s potential purchase of a thin strip of lakeshore land that extends from the Natural High property past Dutch Harbor.
“It”s the area?where the city is interested in a promenade or hotel in the future,” Brookes said. He said nothing has come of his phone conversations about the property and a meeting scheduled last month for the property owner to survey his land fell through.
Last fall, several individuals and groups began a petition drive to gather signatures to “encourage the city council to help us advocate for keeping the Natural High property open space for public access,” organizer and Lakeport resident Cheri Holden said.
Holden is a member of the Sierra Club Lake Group, but said she is involved in the signature drive in the capacity of a Lakeport resident. She said it is important to many people she has spoken with that the property is protected as open space because it is the last remaining view of the lake from Main Street in Lakeport.
“I know there has been talk of putting a high-end hotel there. I”m hoping both bodies (Lakeport School District and Lakeport City Council) will hear their constituency and acknowledge the general public”s feeling that the property remains open,” Holden said.
Holden said many signatures were gathered at the Clear Lake Splash-In, a seaplane event that takes place on the lake and at Natural High School. “I”ve had some interesting comments from tourists. One mentioned coming here and spending a lot of money and said they think it”s important [for events such as the Splash-In and tourism] that the area remains open.”
In addition to citizen input, the City Council will receive numerous staff updates at its meeting at City Hall tonight. On the table are status reports on the finalization of a garbage franchise agreement, activities concerning lakebed weed eradication, a report on a new police program for public safety, alternative funding for parks and grounds and construction of the South Main Street overlay project.
The meeting takes place in City Council Chambers at 225 Park Street in Lakeport at 6 p.m. tonight.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
