LAKEPORT >> The Lake County Board of Supervisors approved an updated version of the Paper Subdivision Management Plan during their regular meeting on Tuesday. The plan now moves to a public hearing.
In November, an initial draft of the plan was presented to the board to garner suggestions and directions.
The updated draft added “a number of suggestions and ideas that were mentioned” during the earlier meeting, Lake County Community Development Assistant Planner Mireya Turner said. Additions include an appendix regarding options for the acquisition and merging of parcels, verbiage regarding the teeter plan and a new pilot project.
“This is an exciting new project … that will address certain paper parcels, specifically with erosion control and nutrient loading in the waters of Clear Lake,” Turner said.
The project will begin on a portion of Mountain View Road above Clearlake Oaks and will create a “community pathway system connecting the town into the hills,” Lake County Community Development Director Richard Coel explained. The goal of this project is curtailing the use of off-highway vehicles, illegal dumping and stormwater pollution.
According to Coel, the area “has all of the major problems that we want to mitigate through this plan.” Including no physical access to build houses, no access public water and small lots.
“I think everything on the north side of the road is only 25 foot wide lots,” Coel added.
In an interesting twist, despite no houses being present in the area there is an existing sewer line.
There are approximately 10,000 Paper Subdivision lots throughout the county, which were created in the early 20th century, Coel said. Of those, approximately 220 are located in the Clearlake Oaks area.
“Over the past 90 years, these unbuildable lots have created myriad problems, ranging from economic to environmental and illegal,” Coel said during the November meeting. “Uninformed out-of-area buyers have invested in these lots, thinking they were getting a great deal on a piece of land, only to find no water, sewer, roads or power.”
The use of off-highway vehicles and illegal marijuana cultivations has caused erosion, which in turn has caused higher nutrient loading into the lake, as well as runoff from illegal dumping. “There is a number of things the county has done over the years, but what we have never done consolidate a strategy,” Coel said.
Goals of the management plan focus on using the lots to address environmental concerns by curtailing OHV use and the erosion it causes; mitigating banking for oak woodland and habitat preservation; developing trails in conjunction with the Konocti Regional Trails (KRT) plan; stopping illegal dumping, as well as reducing illegal marijuana cultivation and camping.
The board approved the updated draft with a unanimous vote of 5-0. A public hearing will be held at 9:15 a.m. during the March 17 board meeting.
Contact J. W. Burch, IV at 900-2022.
