CLEARLAKE — Sierra Club Lake Group (SCLG) has filed a lawsuit seeking to compel the City of Clearlake complete an environmental impact report (EIR) in relation to the Lowe”s Project proposed for development at the Airport Property. The club claims that there are unanswered questions regarding environmental impacts related to the project that necessitate an EIR.
“We believe that the community deserves an EIR report. We believe that the site has enough issues and it is such a big project that the community deserves a complete review,” Cheri Holden, SCLG chairperson said. “I don”t think that anything has been addressed in particular. They have done a broad sweep of the project. It needs to be site specific.”
According to Clearlake City Administrator Dale Neiman, various studies have been done on the property throughout the years since 1996. Neiman said he has worked on the project for the past three years. He said appraisals have been done on the property as well as various engineering studies. Traffic studies have also been completed. “There were also economical studies that were done that were to determine the best and highest use of the property,” he said.
According to Neiman, under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) there are three options for a project including exemption approved by administration, mitigated negative declaration document or EIR. “We did a mitigated negative declaration,” he said. “If all the environmental impacts can be mitigated then you don”t have to do an EIR. If the council didn”t approve the mitigated negative declaration, then there would be no project. We felt that all the environmental impacts were mitigated.”
Neiman said that mitigation efforts costs were $7.5 million. “The environmental document that we did and the supporting studies we had basically amounted to a foot of paper,” he said. “The Kelseyville Lumber project, which is about 28 percent larger, there was an 11 page initial study done with the county and there was basically no mitigation. To me, in the county there is clearly a double standard. There is a standard that applies to Clearlake and a standard that applies to other areas.”
Neiman said that one of the big issues with the SCLG pertained to urban decay and what would happen to Kelseyville Lumber and Piedmont Lumber if Lowe”s is located in Clearlake. “Look at the mitigation that was required for Kelseyville Lumber compared to Lowe”s. There was basically no mitigation,” he said.
Neiman said according to a study by Keyser Marston Associates, in relation to building materials, sales exceed potential with a sales “surplus” or negative leakage of $8.5 million. Basically, he said this means that more revenues are being taken in than can be justified by the population.
The Keyser Marston study says that an important dimension is missed in considering only the numerical estimates, namely the possibility that the lack of competitive pricing by local stores artificially inflates sales resulting in a sales “surplus.” “With the exception of one builder (out of five) whom we interviewed, the Lake County builders indicated that the bulk of their purchases for materials (particularly lumber) are made out-of-county due to non-competitive pricing of local stores. The perceived price differential ranged from 15 percent to more than 30 percent,” the study states.
“Based on the housing survey we did, 26 percent of our residential dwellings are dilapidated and not fit for someone to live in. There are a lot of disabled and retired people in Clearlake who have low disposable incomes. The sad thing is they can”t afford to fix up their homes because of the costs,” he said. “More competition in the county would benefit the lower income residents and allow them to afford to maintain their homes.”
Neiman said that completion of an EIR would cost between $200,000 to $300,000 and push the project back two years, which he said could threaten the fruition of the project. “One of the sad things is that citizens of Clearlake will continue to suffer if we”re not able to better the city by providing tax revenues to better the services,” he said. “If we do an EIR the issues will be exactly the same and the project will be pushed out at least two years.”
Neiman said that a lawsuit also presents a potential for detrimental repercussions. “We are on the verge potentially filing bankruptcy and this could push us over the brink,” he said.
Contact South County reporter Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
