LAKE COUNTY — Six years of hammering out growth policies and community boundaries throughout Lake County for a General Plan update came to an end Tuesday evening when the Lake County Board of Supervisors voted to approve the document.
The work will continue, however, for an advisory committee in Middletown, according to Dist. 1 Supervisor Ed Robey, whose district includes the community. The board left the current community boundaries alone in the new General Plan. The area advisory committee and Lake County Community Development staff disagreed about where Middletown”s new community growth boundary should be drawn.
“We didn”t take the recommendations of the committee, and we didn”t take the recommendations of staff. We told the committee we wanted them to go back and work on it some more,” Robey said.
Community growth boundaries are lines drawn on maps around communities that are meant to guide where commercial and dense residential development can happen. Growth is encouraged inside the boundaries in order to avoid sprawl.
Lake County Community Development Director Rick Coel wanted to include the proposed Vintage Fair subdivision in the new community boundary, while the committee recommended including properties to the south and west of the current boundary.
“Part of the problem with Vintage Fair is that part of it is in a floodplain,” Robey said.
The General Plan defines community boundaries throughout the county and outlines growth policies and land use policies for the next 20 years, based on expected growth, soil types, water resources and where infrastructure is available, among other factors. In the new General Plan is a policy that makes it difficult to develop new subdivisions in floodplains.
“The fact of the matter is that developing residential subdivisions in floodplains is stupid,” Robey said.
The Middletown advisory committee will review where to draw growth boundaries as part of the ongoing process of developing the Middletown Area Plan, a subset of the General Plan. Robey said mapping that is under way that will show where floodplains and parcel lines are located in order to accurately calculate growth projections and draw growth boundaries to accommodate expected growth.
Included in the new General Plan are policies designed to require developers to identify sustainable water sources for proposed developments, to protect Lake County”s scenic vistas along hilltops and ridgelines and to safeguard watersheds, among other policies.
The General Plan is available on the Lake County Web site, www.co.lake.ca.us, by clicking on the “2008 Lake County General Plan” link.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
