LAKE COUNTY — Cell phone towers, court facility transfer negotiations and homeless children are on the Lake County Board of Supervisors” upcoming Tuesday agenda.
Proposed amendments to the Lake County zoning ordinance concerning telecommunications towers go back before the board Tuesday. The amendments incorporate planning commission and public input, according to Community Development Department Director Rick Coel.
“The idea is to clarify the standards. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) does not allow us to address health concerns, because the feds occupy the field. But we can make sure that they are complying with the federal laws by requiring that they provide documentation that they are doing that. And we need to address the needs of our community,” County Counsel Anita Grant said.
The new amendments address aesthetics, design plans, set-back requirements, methods of ensuring compliance with federal regulations, consideration of project alternatives and deciding whether or not adequate coverage already exists in a given area.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 says the county cannot decide where or even if the telecommunication towers will be built in the county “on the basis of environmental effects of radio frequency emissions,” according to Coel.
Two appeals of approved telecommunications towers have appeared on the board”s agenda in the last year, both expressing concern about the negative effects of radio frequency emissions.
In other news, the board will again consider relinquishing its equity interest in the fourth floor of the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport and in the South Civic Center in Clearlake to the state.
Lake County Chief Deputy Administrative Officer Matt Perry is in ongoing negotiations with the California Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) to transfer the county”s courts to the state. Perry said in a memo to the board that a new law extends the deadline to reach an agreement with the AOC to Dec. 31, 2009, but imposes penalties on counties that have not done so by Sept. 30, 2008.
“If and when the state builds a new courthouse and the court vacates the fourth floor, the county would have to compensate the state to use that space,” Perry wrote.
The county would pay the state a flat annual fee of approximately $50,000 for maintenance cost, as long as the courts remain on the fourth floor, according to Perry. He said if the county provides land for a new courthouse, the value can be used to buy back the equity interest on the fourth floor.
The board will also read a proclamation designating June as Homeless Youth Awareness Month in Lake County. According to the proclamation, approximately 656 teens between the ages of 16 and 19 in Lake County are homeless. Of those, 369 are neither in school nor employed, according to the proclamation.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
