CLEARLAKE — It was standing room only Friday evening at Clearlake City Hall as an enthusiastic crowd gathered to hear preliminary plans for improving the Lakeshore Drive corridor.
More than 100 people attended the meeting, which wrapped up a week of discussion and planning for the corridor.
The planning sessions aimed to enhance safety and improve pedestrian, bicycle and other forms of transportation through the corridor.
The city government partnered with Sacramento-based nonprofit organization Local Government Coalition (LGC) and the Lake County/City Area Planning Council (APC) to organize a series of planning events for the corridor.
The project was funded by transportation grants from Caltrans and the APC as well as local planning funds.
A walking tour of the corridor and open community workshop Tuesday kicked off the events.
LGC invited the public Wednesday to its design studio, which was in a building on Lakeshore Drive, to provide input into the design of the corridor.
“We were able to move our office there and actually design and watch through the window what”s actually happening on the corridor,” Josh Meyer, a member of the LGC design team, said.
The design team updated the Clearlake City Council about the preliminary design for the corridor Thursday before presenting the plans Friday evening. A reception to celebrate the process followed in Austin Park.
Meyer said the events also focused on developing parts of the corridor a bit differently, “building on the assets that are already here to create activity areas and to build out commercial areas combined with public spaces and to enhance the parks.”
Meyer said all input was collected to incorporate into the final design plans that will be ready and presented to the city council in the winter.
The final plans will incorporate a long-term plan for the corridor while highlighting smaller short-term projects the city can take on as funds become available.
Meyer said some of the ideas in the plan included creating bicycle lanes through the corridor as well as constructing roundabouts at the intersections of Lakeshore and Olympic drives as well as Lakeshore Drive and Old Highway 53.
City Manager Joan Phillipe said the plans will help Clearlake become more competitive for grant funding.
“We haven”t had the kind of detailed plan to take forward in a grant proposal,” she said.
Meyer said community reception of the plans was positive.
“It”s not surprising because most of the ideas came from the community,” he said.
Mayor Joey Luiz said he was blown away by the turnout.
“It”s not the people that are usually involved with city affairs,” he said. “It”s people from the community that either care or want to see progress or are more confident in the leadership now. We couldn”t have asked for a better amount of community involvement.”
Phillipe said the planning sessions highlighted a positive change in the community.
“There seems to be a very cohesive and enthusiastic energy,” she said. “From what I”m told, since I haven”t been here for very long, that hasn”t happened in a very long time. So, I think it”s a turning point.”
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14. Follow on Twitter: @KevinNHume.
