LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The family that sold the county 1,500 acres on top of Mt. Konocti has filed suit over a pilot bus program meant to offer a limited number of trips to the top of the mountain for those who otherwise couldn’t make the trip.
Mike Fowler and his wife, Emily Ford, had the county of Lake and Lake Transit Authority served on Tuesday with the lawsuit, which also includes 100 as-yet unnamed defendents.
Their attorney, Thomas Brigham of Ukiah, did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
The Fowlers sold the county the 1,520-acre property for $3.6 million in 2009. As part of the agreement, they retained a 159-acre property in the middle of the park where they continue to reside.
They allege that by running the bus tours the county is violating the terms of use for an easement that they granted through their remaining property.
The Fowlers are seeking declaratory and injunctive in an unlimited civil action. They also want a judgment quieting title against the county’s claim that it has a right to use the road easement for the bus tours and, in addition, are seeking attorney’s fees and court costs.
County Counsel Anita Grant said the county’s interpretation of the agreements with Fowler and Ford is that anyone the county authorizes can carry out operations on the county’s property and use the easement in doing so.
Grant said the county’s goal was to provide access – in a limited fashion, and in the least intrusive way possible – to people with physical limitations who otherwise would be precluded from visiting the mountaintop park.
Public Services Director Caroline Chavez said Lake Transit has done four tour dates so far, at two tours each day, with 85 to 90 percent of those taking part being age 65 or older.
“That was exactly the demographic we were trying to achieve,” she said, noting the wonder people expressed while visiting the mountain.
Board approves pilot program
This past spring, the Board of Supervisors moved forward with the pilot program in which Lake Transit would offer six docent-led bus tours during the fall to the top of Mount Konocti County Park.
The county said the goal was to provide access and minimize individual vehicle usage.
At the May 22 meeting during which the board approved the program, Chavez said she had been getting requests to visit the park from people who otherwise couldn’t get up to the mountaintop, including seniors and those with physical limitations.
Tom Nixon, a retired Clear Lake State Park ranger, worked with a group to put together the docent-led program. A ticket on the three-hour tours costs $16.
Fowler and Ford voiced their objections at that time, stating that they had not been included in the discussions about the program and that the plans didn’t address their privacy concerns.
Fowler said he didn’t want the buses up there, telling the board that throughout negotiations with the county the emphasis had always been on preserving and protecting the property, with provisions for nonmotorized access.
He said it smacked of a commercial enterprise, with Board Chair Rob Brown replying that it was being done through public transit.
The board and county staff felt that allowing people up in a bus was less intrusive than letting in numerous vehicles. At that time, it was reported that Chavez was trying to make accommodations by simply giving people access to drive up to the park.
Then-County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox told the board at that meeting that the property was purchased with public tax dollars. “We have taxpayers who are demanding for us to give them access to that mountain.”
Deputy Administrative Officer Alan Flora said that the proposal came out of the county’s efforts to offer access in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. “This seemed the best way to provide that.”
Arguments over road easement central to case
The option agreement for the Mt. Konocti property that the county and Fowler signed on Aug. 5, 2008, states that the use of the property by the public will be regulated by the county to ensure the protection of natural resources; minimize risk of fire and erosion; protect cultural resources, wildlife and wildland habitat; encourage appreciation of the property’s natural characteristics; prevent use of roads and trails by motorized off-highway vehicles; promote nonmotorized use of roads to the extent feasible; prevent hunting or shooting, and trash and vandalism; and protect the Fowler’s privacy and enjoyment of his property.
Commercial uses of the property, the document stated, were to be limited to operating the communications facilities as well as to objectives set forth in the above list of goals and protections.
Fowler and Ford’s suit states that they granted three road easements to the county between October 2009 and September 2011. The first two were for construction, use, maintenance and repair of the communications towers and other facilities, the suit explained.
The last negotiated easement, in September 2011 for a different area than the first two easements, was for maintenance vehicles, the county’s licensees and other persons authorized by the county, according to the suit.
The suit argues that since the tours began on Sept. 15, the county and Lake Transit’s joint venture “has overburdened and exceed the scope of the easement rights of the County. The Plaintiffs have demanded that the County and LTA not use the Easement Road for the bus tour purpose but said defendants have ignored Plaintiffs’ demand.
Fowler and Ford say that the easement does not authorize the county to conduct commercial bus tours or any other kind of bus tours, and does not confer to the county the power to give anyone else the right to run such tours. As such, they’re asking for a judicial determination of their rights.
Chavez said two tours are still scheduled to take place.
Grant said the filing of the complaint alone doesn’t mean the county has to stop the tours.
That decision, she said, will be up to the Board of Supervisors, unless the Fowlers file for a temporary restraining order, which they didn’t do on Tuesday.
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.