LAKEPORT — The Lakeport Planning Commission voted Wednesday to recommend the city council adopt a mitigated negative declaration for 10 proposed city water and sewer projects.
The commissioners considered an environmental review document for the projects, prepared by Sloughhouse-based Environmental Planning Partners, Inc., during their meeting Wednesday at Lakeport City Hall.
“We”re talking about enhancing the community,” Lakeport Community Development Director Richard Knoll said in an interview Thursday. “These are big, big issues for this community.”
The project proposals include putting in new water meters, repairing treatment ponds, updating the existing supervisory control and data acquisition system, replacing a sewer pump station and improving the sewer collection system.
Many of the issues with the water and sewer systems are “at-risk if they”re not addressed now,” City Manager Margaret Silveira said Thursday.
The city seeks grants and low-interest, long-term loans through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help fund the projects.
One of the proposals — an extension to loop existing water mains on Parallel Drive and South Main Street — drew criticism from a county representative Wednesday evening.
Alan Flora, deputy county administrative officer, was the lone member of the public to address the commission.
“We feel like we”re looking out for our interests and the interests of the property owners down there, and we”re going to keep a close eye on it,” Flora said Thursday.
Other county departments — public works, community development and special districts — submitted written comments about the environmental document.
Flora argued the loop project tied directly into the city”s desire to annex unincorporated land along the South Main Street-Soda Bay Road corridor south of its current borders down to near Manning Creek — all of which is in the city”s sphere of influence.
“We feel that this is sort of a way to create additional leverage for annexation in the future,” Flora said.
Silveira said the city always planned to loop the water mains, regardless of annexation.
“Any engineer would tell you in the water system you don”t want long dead-end lines. It”s very bad for your water system,” she said, citing concerns about operations, water quality and fire suppression.
The loop would extend the current main down South Main Street, into unincorporated Lakeport, and then join the Parallel Drive line near Highway 175. Property owners outside the city limits could not connect to the system.
Landowners in the corridor could tie into the city system after annexation, Knoll said.
“It”s been intended for a very long time that the South Main Street area be a part of the city of Lakeport, be incorporated as part of the city of Lakeport, and for urban utilities to be extended,” he added.
But annexation has been pushed to the back burner for city staff, according to Silveira.
“That”s not at the top of our priority list right now,” she said, adding that negotiations with the county have “broken down.”
Flora described issues his department has with the annexation proposal.
“Our office is very concerned about the annexation, for obvious reasons, specifically in the potential loss of revenue that would result to the county general fund and our ability to provide services not just to the residents in the South Main Street-Soda Bay Road area but all residents of the county,” he said.
Earlier this year, the county contracted with Lakeport-based Ruzicka Associates for a feasibility study about a public water system in southern Lakeport. A draft could be made public in the next few weeks.
Flora said the study analyzes two options for providing water to the corridor: connecting into the existing Kelseyville, Finley-area county water system or creating a new water system specific to the corridor.
A third option, which the study does not address, is building infrastructure in the county”s jurisdiction to tie into the city”s water system, according to Flora. “The city expressed that was not an option they were interested in,” he said.
While the commission did not decide on an annexation item Wednesday, it did recommend the city council adopt the mitigated negative declaration for the water main loop and the nine other projects.
The vote was 4-0, with Commissioner Ross Kauper abstaining.
The city council could discuss the item in the late summer or early fall, Silveira said.
For the record, the article “Lakeport water study prompts county concern,” which ran in Thursday”s Record-Bee, contained misinformation about the commission meeting. Lake County Publishing regrets the error.
