LAKEPORT — Silence from the Lake County planning commissioners Thursday spoke volumes about their opposition to the county supervisors” support of one billboard in southern Lakeport.
“This is not sitting very well with me. I think we made a good decision,” chair Olga Martin Steele said, referring to the commission”s choice to deny the five-year use permit extension request in late January.
The commissioners determined at that time the billboard, visible from Highway 29 just south of Ackley Road, violated regulations because it was not located within 1,000 feet of a community growth boundary or the city”s sphere of influence.
Sign owner La Monica Outdoor Advertising appealed to the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS), which granted the appeal Aug. 28.
In part, the supervisors found removing the billboard would likely have negative impacts on biological resources and if a South Lakeport community growth boundary existed, the sign would probably have been within its bounds.
As a result, county staff reviewed the project, prepared permit conditions and brought the proposal back for commission consideration Thursday morning.
“I think we made a good decision. I haven”t changed my mind,” commissioner Cliff Swetnam said.
And when it came time to make a motion after the public discussion, no commissioner spoke. The extension request was effectively denied after dying for lack of a motion.
The sign owner would have to file an appeal to have the BOS revisit the issue, Community Development Director Rick Coel said.
In other business, the commission unanimously found the county”s plan to realign a portion of Konocti Road, which people use to access Mount Konocti County Park, was in conformity with the Lake County General Plan.
The road currently goes through private property, and the Public Services Department proposes to cut in and grade about 4,000 feet for a new 30-foot-wide roadway.
Nearly 75 to 80 percent of the proposed new road would sit on county land and the rest would be on a different private parcel.
Officials plan to obtain a construction easement and then talk with that property owner about acquiring all or a portion of the land, Public Services Director Caroline Chavez said.
The commission unanimously recommended the BOS approve changes to zoning and/or general plan designations for 19 properties throughout the county.
Eight parcels (six in Lower Lake and two in Middletown) are no longer within Williamson Act contracts and shouldn”t be in agricultural preserve zoning, Coel said. He also recommended giving new designations to six of them.
Coel said two rural parcels on Morgan Valley Road in Lower Lake and one on Harrington Flat Road in Loch Lomond should no longer be zoned open space because government agencies sold them to private individuals.
Staff recommended changing the open space zoning and resource conservation designation for a pair of Middletown parcels on Santa Clara Road and altering the zoning and designation for two parcels on Big Canyon Road that used to be one lot.
One Middletown parcel on Highway 29 would be zoned and designated rural residential, under the proposal. The property with a gas station on Putah Lane in Middletown would become community commercial, which the owner requested.
A sliver of one parcel on Ogulin Canyon Road in Clearlake remains unincorporated because of a mapping error, Coel said. The current unclassified zoning district does not exist, so the land needs to be rezoned.
A property on Dam Road in Lower Lake was inappropriately designated as resource conservation, Coel said.
The BOS could conduct its public discussion in mid-December, Coel added.
Jeremy Walsh is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. Reach him at 263-5636, ext. 37 or jwalsh@record-bee.com. Follow the case on Twitter, @JeremyDWalsh or #LakePlanComm.
