CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The last in a series of community meetings on the drafting of a new Clearlake General Plan is scheduled for this weekend, at which time residents will have the chance to give input on the proposals.
The meeting will take place from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 9, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
This will be the fourth community meeting held in the plan drafting process, which began last fall, as Lake County News has reported.
The city of Clearlake, thanks to a grant from the Lake County/City Area Planning Council, was able to hire a team of graduate students with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s City and Regional Planning Department to work on updating the city’s general plan, which City Manager Joan Phillipe said was well out of date.
Phillipe told Lake County News that she’s been delighted with the process so far.
The first meeting last fall had a low turnout – due, in part, Phillipe believes, to other events that day.
She credited the students with taking the initiative and going into the community to get comments using the same questions as were used in the workshop. The next two workshops were well attended, she said.
“Attendees have come to participate, are engaged and are providing good, sound comments,” Phillipe said. “Each workshop brings new people and new faces which I think is indicative of the enthusiasm we are seeing from many about the work the city is doing to bring its planning documents up to date, to create forward and positive movement in boosting the city’s ability to be proactive in creating a more fiscally healthy community and generally to know where we are going.”
Dr. Cornelius Nuworsoo of Cal Poly, the project’s director, said the team has had a positive experience in Clearlake.
“This has been a wonderful process for us, the cooperation and enthusiasm of Clearlake’s residents and the leadership has been great. Their dedication to envisioning a bright future for their city inspires our team to do their very best,” Nuworsoo said.
At the Saturday meeting the Cal Poly team will present its final preferred growth alternative with growth impacts,
Members of the community are invited to attend and give their feedback. The team said all comments will be integrated into a final draft that will be submitted to the city.
“We have seen growing attendance at each of our meetings, over 40 people came to our last community meeting. We see this as strong community investment in the importance of this process,” said team member Nikki Streegan.
Streegan added that the team hopes to deliver a final product that is a great guide for future development in the city.
Phillipe said she’s very impressed with the students’ ability to listen and actually hear what the community says.
“They come back to each successive workshop with scenarios that clearly are based on community interest and input, not their view of what the city should necessarily be,” she said. “The students are producing professional planning quality work. I have been very pleased with what has been produced to date.”
For more information about the plan and the process, visit www.planclearlake.weebly.com .
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.