A recent Record-Bee article (April 9) presented a misleading picture of the Sierra Club”s connection to the proposed Airport Redevelopment Project in the city of Clearlake, the city”s parlous fiscal condition, and the Redevelopment Agency”s role in upgrading the sewer system.
Legal action brought by the Sierra Club Lake Group has one purpose only: to compel the city to prepare an environmental impact report on the project. The legal necessity for doing this has been detailed in writing (twice) and in public hearings (twice), and also substantiated by expert testimony, but when the city chose to ignore this evidence, an appeal to the courts before the March 26 deadline was the only recourse available to the club.
Nonetheless the city can still easily avoid heavy legal expenses, merely by revoking project approvals and doing the EIR as state law requires. The Lake Group hopes that this sensible course of action will emerge from the mandatory mediation to be scheduled soon.
Clearlake has been discussing bankruptcy since at least Feb. 11. The Sierra Club didn”t create this depressing fiscal quagmire, nor would the Lowe”s project provide a near-term remedy even if the improbably rosy projections presented by the city manager proved accurate, since at best it would take years for anticipated tax revenues to begin.
Legal action aside, the project would furthermore be delayed by the unavailability of sewer service until the very necessary system upgrades are complete, several years in the future at the very earliest. As for the sewer, it”s hard to understand what the council had in mind in rescinding their partnership agreement with the county to provide a long-lasting fix to a system so faulty that raw sewage bubbles up around manhole covers. Did they suppose that the upgrade will therefore have to be abandoned? If so do they accept the continuing pollution of city streets, local watercourses, and Clear Lake, plus the indefinite impediment to growth imposed by system undercapacity? Or did they assume that the county will move ahead anyway, as is the intention of LACOSAN and the Board of Supervisors?
Under that assumption, the council”s action expressed its willingness to shift virtually the entire $5 million cost onto local ratepayers ? who are also local voters who might be expected to voice their displeasure at the ballot box. Clearlake residents and others who object to the travesty at city hall would be well-advised to convey their disapproval, not to the Sierra Club (as was suggested in the Record-Bee article), but to the city council and city administrator. They can all be reached at 994-8201.
Victoria Brandon
On behalf of the Sierra Club Lake Group
