LAKEPORT >> Thursday was a good time for residents of Lake County to learn about the latest designated amendments requested to be considered by the General Plan Advisory Commitee (GPAC).
This was the Third Meeting of GPAC for the Lake County 2050 Plan, with part one on February 13 and Part 2 occurring this week. These were hybrid web-based and in-person meetings, with in-person attendees convening at the Lake County Board of Supervisors Chambers.
In Part 1, PlaceWorks (project consultant) provided an overview of the www.lakecounty2050.org major project updates since the last GPAC meeting. These include conducting a community survey, holding community workshops at all local area plan (LAP) level, and convening a virtual stakeholder meeting focused on the topic of environmental justice. Additionally, PlaceWorks introduced the Housing Action and Implementation Plan (HAIP), a comprehensive manual to address current and forecasted housing demand throughout the county.
Moderating the meeting was Mireya Turner, Community Development Department director. “We’ll look at recommendations for all eight Local Area Plan Advisory Committees (LAPAC), specific to land use amendments on the General Plan map,” said Turner. Maps depicted will consider Hazard Layer overlays. Some of these include a Fire Severity map produced by Cal Fire, currently undergoing a 90-day review. “We are getting community input in all Area Plan updates, and over five weeks held at 46 meetings with the different LAPACs, members of the public joined with requests drafted. in recommendations to the planning team,” Turner said.
Tanya Sundberg, principal at PlaceWorks, lead project manager, has 20 years’ experience in general plans, environmental impact reports, cannabis services, and geographic information systems (GIS), Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs), complete streets plans and community outreach, PlaceWorks was founded in 1975 as The Center for Planning & Research and modeled after the principles of the Bauhaus School of Design in Germany. It focuses on a commitment to integrative planning and design, which drove the firm’s expansion into new fields, including environmental science and analysis, and school facilities planning.
Sundberg, collaborating with LAPAC arrived at various recommended changes to the General Plan land use map. She noted that the map identifies the type of land that can be developed on various parcels of the unincorporated county. in a Power point show, she displayed a current land use plan with darker green areas of the Lake County map that are to remain in agricultural use. Yellow, represented low density residential areas. She explained that the residential designation indicated the number of homes per acre that are allowed to be developed. For commercial or industrial structures, showed the limits of how big buildings could be.
Sundberg then displayed a map reflecting the recommended changes to apply to the Resource Conservation designation, this illustrated a 20-foot buffer around Clear Lake and the adjacent tributaries. The buffer is intended to aid with conservation of the Hitch. It is a large minnow endemic to Clear Lake. Its population has struggled significantly, leading to its listing as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act in 2014 due to factors like drought. Historically, the hitch was so abundant that people could walk across creeks on their backs, highlighting its cultural importance to local Native American tribes. Conservation efforts are ongoing to help restore its population.
She also revealed maps of the existing plan land use map, as well as areas where LAPAC recommended changes. However, even these changes intended very low- key alteration, not at all extensive that included Upper Lake, Nice and Middletown. In addition, there were hazard view maps from Cal Fire indicating fire severity zones. These maps were based on physical conditions of expected fire behavior. This also included a 100-Year Flood Map. It displayed the likelihood of a 1% chance in any given year for catastrophic floods.
Allison Griffin, senior associate with PlaceWorks, exhibited a map of Lower Lake parcels near the southeast growth boundary slated for changes from Rural Residential to Suburban Residential Preserve by 2050. Turner noted parcels in Lower Lake that follow Morgan Valley Road, currently have water and sewer infrastructure and are included in LAPAC recommended changes, which will be presented at the Part 2 meeting this week. “Regarding the community growth boundaries, it will include parcels recommended for changes from Rural Residential to Suburban reserve,” she said. “They are consistent with surrounding parcels across from Morgan Valley Road. There are plans afoot in this area for a gradual transition from Remote Rural land areas that are typically 20 to 60 acre parcels due to their slope and remote land location. “Coming into Rural Residential, which is the next phase, is closer to our moderately populated areas.
In regards to Kelseyville, Turner identified a 6,000 square foot parcel zoned for Single Residential that has sewer and water and LAPAC noted it is located close to many schools. “One problem Kelseyville struggles with is safe routes to schools and a lot of kids walk to school along roads,” Turner said. “We identified this one parcel for its proximity to the Highway (29 /175) as a good spot to convert from Ag.” She also pointed out the evening’s discussion demonstrated the GPAC committee, values housing, values the preservation of agriculture and wants to make sure development and expansion is done in a smart way and not in a willy nilly approach. “So, I agree, just going from recommendation to recommendation, may not be the best way to go,” she said.
“We may want to switch to handling community wide presentations of changes recommended by LAPAC,” she added. “Rather than taking each recommendation and going, ‘Yea/nay’ and instead of presenting general themes of what is important to LAPAC, we could just as easily convey these ideas to the board. Maybe that’s where we’ll pivot to.”
