LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Planning Commission spent its Wednesday evening meeting giving a thorough read to the city's draft general plan update.
During the two-hour session led by city staff, the five-member commission worked through everything from mundane grammatical issues up to greater concerns involving the sphere of influence, and a proposal to adopt into the draft document useful and consistent language from county general plan policies relating to resource conservation and land use.
Altogether, commissioners approved changes to four parts of the general plan update, as well as a revised city sphere of influence.
“We covered a lot of good material,” said Commissioner Harold Taylor at the meeting's end.
Commission Chair Ken Wicks Jr. raised concerns about the lack of public participation. When he looked out from the dais, he could see that the chambers were empty, except for the two reporters who came to cover the meeting.
That's despite the city's legal advertisements, notices in local media and mailings sent out to local agencies, tribes and other interested parties. So far, the city hasn't even received comments from those notices.
Special Projects Coordinator Richard Knoll also reported that the city on March 26 mailed out a request for proposals to four firms, seeking a planning/environmental consultant to prepare the general plan's environmental document. Proposals are due April 23.
One of the meeting's main items of discussion involved a recommendation from the city attorney relating to a proposed sphere of influence area outside of the city's southern limit.
The sphere of influence is an area that extends beyond the city limits where urban growth is anticipated to occur in the future.
More than 700 acres of that proposed sphere of influence area is property owned by the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District, or CLMSD, and includes treatment and storage for the city's wastewater.
Some of that proposed sphere also is private property, including St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Knoll said.
The area had been designated a “specific plan” area, and in 2006 the Lakeport City Council approved an agreement with Boeger Land Development, the firm behind the Cristallago project in north Lakeport, for a golf course and housing development with between 600 and 1,200 homes.
Knoll told the commission at its February meeting that the specific plan language that covered the CLMSD land development “is no longer consistent with city policy,” that the development plan was not going forward and it was the city's intent to remove the language referring to the project from the updated general plan.
At that point, the city was looking at removing the private property from the sphere of influence and giving new designations – such as public and civic use – to the city-owned CLMSD land, which at that time the city was looking at leaving within the sphere of influence.
However, Knoll told the commission Wednesday evening that City Manager Margaret Silveira had provided to city staff a recommendation from interim City Attorney David Ruderman that the CLMSD land should not be included in the city's sphere of influence at this time. That doesn't preclude the city from adding the land to its sphere in the future.
“There are specific reasons for that recommendation,” said Knoll. “Really, what it boils down to, is a desire to streamline the process we're going through from a political and a legal perspective.”
Commissioner Suzanne Russell said she didn't understand the recommendation. “If we own it, why wouldn't we include it?”
Knoll said that just because the city owned it, doesn't mean that it needed to be within the sphere of influence, and that the city attorney and city manager preferred not to see the property included at this time.
“I personally don't have a problem with that,” said Wicks, noting that Ruderman had solid grounds for making the recommendation and that the property had not originally been included in the sphere.
While Knoll didn't go into further detail about the reasons for not including the property in the sphere of influence, the agreement for the CLMSD housing and golf development between the city and Boeger Land Development appears to hold a clue.
That document – which has no sunset clause – required the city to perform a number of steps to move the project forward, with one of those steps being the addition of the CLMSD property to the sphere of influence.
The commission agreed unanimously to not include the property in the sphere of influence based on the city attorney's recommendation.
Language updates, policy considerations
Knoll then brought forward a revised sphere of influence area along Soda Bay Road and S. Main Street.
Previously, the commission had agreed to remove some agricultural land and land in the Manning Creek riparian area from the sphere.
However, due to three parcels being split by that new boundary, Knoll said it was instead suggested that the boundary would go back to being coterminus with Manning Creek. The new line follows the property lines.
Knoll said staff believed they needed to go back and beef up some of the policy language in the general plan's conservation element to protect sensitive areas along the creek.
Knoll and the commission then worked through a series of text amendments and corrections, discussed the addition of a new “urban reserve” section and whether references to the redevelopment agency should be left in the document.
Wicks wanted to wait to take up the redevelopment reference issue. Planning Services Manager Andrew Britton said such references may not be inappropriate in a few years, considering the ongoing efforts at the state level to develop other kinds of redevelopment or infrastructure funding.
Regarding the plan's urban boundary element, Knoll said it supports the argument for future annexations. By the year 2025, it's estimated that Lakeport will nearly 6,900 residents, with most of the needed land for development to be found in existing infill.
Knoll said staff also will work on policy language that speaks to the need or requirement to prepare a cost benefit analysis for annexation, a proposal that was agreeable to the commission.
With the commission's approval, Knoll said he also wanted to go back and incorporate into the city's draft general plan language from the county general plan land use element. “There's some good stuff here,” he said.
Some of those policies relate to open space conservation, stream and creek protection, and development in environmentally sensitive areas.
Those proposed additions and changes will be brought back for consideration at the next meeting, Knoll said.
The commission unanimously accepted all of the proposed changes to the maps and documents.
There was no public comment on the commission's work at the meeting's end.
Speaking to the community, Wicks said, “We would love to see some folks show up. This is your issue. This is something we are trying to do on your behalf. Your input is vital.”
The commission is nearing the end of its work program on the general plan, Wicks noted.
Its next meeting is Wednesday, May 14.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.