LAKEPORT ?Cristallago took another step toward building north of Lakeport as the Lake County Board of Supervisors denied an appeal Tuesday by the Sierra Club Lake Group and certified the final environmental impact report for the project.
Board members voted 4-1 to deny the appeal, with Supervisor Denise Rushing dissenting.
Rushing and Chairman Anthony Farrington dominated the deliberations with little input from the other three supervisors. The board held a public hearing Jan. 26 on the issue and continued deliberation so Rushing could have time to make a decision. The development would include 650 houses, a golf course and 325 resort units on Hill Road north of Lakeport.
“I don”t think this one”s ready, I think it”s doable,” Rushing said of the report. “I believe it”s inadequate.”
Rushing said she thinks a number of issues weren”t significantly mitigated, including water, woodlands, asbestos, green house gases and the traffic impact to Lakeport. Rushing said the program EIR is the county”s best opportunity to look at the cumulative impact of the project to decide whether or not its impacts are mitigated.
Farrington said there”s much more work to be done before the project breaks ground.
The board will have a public hearing on zoning issues for the development at 1:30 p.m. March 2 when members and the public can address all of the aspects of the project.
Also on Tuesday, the board agreed to come back with a possible case-by-case temporary moratorium on sewer hookups to the Southeast Regional Wastewater Collection, which serves Clearlake and Lower Lake and has had sewage spills diluted by rainwater for years.
Board members said they would try to have the meeting in Clearlake so that community members can easily attend. The board also discussed declaring an emergency to help resolve the problem.
“A moratorium means no building, no building means an impact at this point today or next month to building supply places around Lake County,” Supervisor Jeff Smith said.
Smith said he thinks the moratorium was brought before the board to stop the possible development of Lowe”s on the airport property in Clearlake.
The board discussed negotiations with Clearlake Feb. 2 to construct a $5 million bypass sewage line to increase capacity and prevent spills.
“I want it fixed as soon as possible, whether there”s development on the airport property or not,” Smith said.
Farrington said he doesn”t think no-growth is a good model for economic prosperity.
“I think in life you grow or you decay,” Farrington said.
Supervisor Rob Brown brought the moratorium before the board and said the moratorium would apply to any project, not just Lowe”s.
“I don”t want Lowe”s in there, but I don”t want crap in the lake either,” Brown said.
Smith said it was sad to see diluted sewage water flowing out of the manhole that looked like a flash flood down Old Highway 53.
He and the other board members supported camera and smoke testing to discover whether residents and businesses illegally hook up their roofs or yards to the sewer system to divert rainwater.
“We don”t have a sewer capacity problem, we have a rainwater capacity problem that we have to fix,” Smith said.
Special districts administrator Mark Dellinger said a moratorium would raise visibility and urgency of the matter so that the district may be more competitive for funds to fix the problem.
Since 2001, Special Districts has spent more than $432,000 on trucks to pump sewage rather than pay fees for spills, which it”s required to report, Dellinger said.
Dellinger advised the board the Regional Water Quality Control Board could impose its own moratorium on development, which would be much more difficult to overcome, he said.
The board also agreed to budget transfers from Special Districts contingencies funds to other budgets for costs such as the sewer water hauling about three weeks ago that cost about $30,000.
Board members unanimously awarded a bid to Stewart Engineering of Redding for the Lucerne Third Avenue Plaza Pier for $567,420.
The board unanimously voted to approve a resolution amending rules for the General Relief program to include restrictions such as fleeing felons and people convicted of drug related felonies after 1996 would not qualify. General Relief is a mandated welfare program funded by the county.
Board members unanimously voted to change fees for the county library so overdue adult and child items cost 20 cents a day to make fines uniform.
Victoria Brandon of the Sierra Club Lake Group encouraged the board and public to sign petitions to put an initiative on the ballot that would create a permanent funding source for state parks by adding $18 charges to personal vehicle licenses.
Shalean Smith also addressed the board to tell them the Upper Lake Women”s Protective Club raised more than $5,000 to buy and install a town clock in Upper Lake.
Contact Katy Sweeny at kdsweeny@gmail.com or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
