On Thursday, May 13 the City Council for the City of Clearlake was forced to take some very drastic action in order to balance its budget so that it will continue to be able to pay its bills. The problem with the City of Clearlake”s finances is lack of adequate income. The cuts are major but would not have been nearly as severe if the Sierra Club had been willing to withdraw its lawsuit whose effect is to slow down, and perhaps eliminate, the Lowe”s project on the old airport property. It is true the Sierra Club did not create the city”s current financial crisis, but the lawsuit eliminates “the light at the end of the tunnel” that could have prevented many of the layoffs. The future sales tax income ? estimated by the Sierra Club”s own experts to be based on revenues of $38.2 million dollars ? of between $400,000 and $600,000 every year would have started in early 2012. The building of the project would have provided money for several city employees who would be working on the project thus making other General Fund money available for the positions that had to be eliminated.
The airport property has been slated to be a business park since it was purchased by the city in 1996. The Clearlake Vision Task Force Report describes it as part of “the area which has the greatest potential to grow into an important source of employment and the retail center for the region.” The Lowe”s project fulfills this vision as the project also contains six additional retail business spaces. It has taken time to find and negotiate a contract with a developer with an anchor tenant who would sign a contract and make the commitment to build the project. Lowe”s did this and the contractual obligations in the contract would have protected the city, financially, from building delays.
The Sierra Club lawsuit outlines a number of concerns, and states that a full EIR is required under CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act). CEQA requires a full EIR only when substantial evidence exists that a project may result in significant impacts to the environment. The studies done for this project that resulted in the negative declaration decision detail that significant impacts will either not occur or were mitigated within the project. Mitigating environmental effects is the purpose of CEQA. CEQA is not designed to stop a project; it is designed to protect the environment through mitigation of any significant environmental issues. In the case of the Lowe”s project the requirements under CEQA were satisfied.
Part II, the conclusion of this commentary, will appear in tomorrow”s paper.
Suzanne Scholz is a resident of Clearlake.
