LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Clearlake Planning Commission on Tuesday evening voted unanimously to grant permits to allow an anti-abortion group to begin operating a clinic in the city.

The Pregnancy Counseling Center of Ukiah, doing business as Mendo Lake Women’s Clinic, will be located within an existing commercial building built in 1980 that previously housed an eye clinic, located at 14595 Olympic Drive, Suite C.

The center’s administration sought the conditional use permit, sign permit and an environmental categorical exemption for the 2,000-square-foot licensed medical clinic.

The staff report said the Mendo Lake Women’s Clinic is a nonprofit organization, with its parent clinic located in Ukiah.

Nonprofit filings show that the Pregnancy Counseling Center of Ukiah also is known as The Center for Life Choices.

Cathy Hoyt, chair of the board of directors of the Center for Life Choices, said the center is the funding agency for the new clinic, which she directs.

The Pregnancy Counseling Center’s stated mission is, “To erase the need for abortion by effectively serving pregnant, at-risk women by transforming their fear into confidence.”

Internal Revenue Service filings from 2017 to 2019 showed the organization received contributions and grants totaling around $300,000 annually.

City planning documents state that the proposed outpatient clinic will provide limited services at no charge to women with unplanned pregnancy. Services include pregnancy testing, prenatal vitamin provision, limited ultrasounds, options consultation, sexually transmitted infection testing and limited treatment and an abortion pill recovery treatment program.

The outpatient clinic will operate from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays, and staffed by up to four employees. A maximum of five patients per day is expected, with a total of 200 patients a year.

Staff recommended approval of the project.

“We are excited about the opportunity to serve the women of Lake County as we have served Mendocino County for over 35 years,” Hoyt said.

Hoyt said the organization is not new to Lake County, and operated as a mobile clinic from October 2012 to January 2019. After the demise of the mobile clinic, they planned to establish a permanent setting, resulting in this project, Hoyt said.

She said their services include recovery for post-abortion syndrome which is a form of PTSD. “Contrary to the common narrative, abortion can be a traumatic event for many women and men, as well as family and friends, and we plan to address this silent mental health thief with an outreach that heals and brings hope.”

Hoyt said they also provide treatment for women who begin the abortion pill procedure and then regret it. When the process is started quickly enough, Hoyt claimed it has favorable results.

“The medically underserved county of Lake will benefit greatly from the presence of this clinic,” not only from the services but from referrals, she said.

Hoyt said they offer their services for free, which is made possible by their donors.

She questioned several city requirements because she said they would increase their cost to operate and delay their opening, including parking, lighting and landscape plans, explaining their renovations are for the building’s interior only.

Other requirements she asked to be waived included a requirement for a trash enclosure and a cultural resource consultant.

Senior Planner Mark Roberts explained many of those requirements were boilerplate, and in the case of some of them — for new curb and gutter on the Buckeye Street side of the building and the cultural resource consultant — the commission was willing to waive them.

However, City Manager Alan Flora cautioned against removing conditions in case things come up, explaining there are obligations from the state and federal government on some of the items, particularly if the ground is disturbed during the project.

During public comment, the project’s contractor questioned what the city’s regulations were accomplishing.

Real estate agent Dave Hughes, a former city planning commissioner representing the building’s owner at the meeting, asked why a use permit process was necessary for the new clinic. “To me this is totally unnecessary, and a waste of staff and applicant time.”

Hughes said it was an undue hardship on the property owner and applicant, suggesting the city was abusing the use permit process. He said the city also had raised its permit fees $2,200.

Commissioner Terry Stewart said he thought Hughes raised valid points and asked if the use permit process could be bypassed.

“The city municipal code says that this use requires a use permit. In fact, Mr. Hughes was on the zoning committee that recommended approval of this very zoning ordinance,” said Flora.

While the council recently had approved new fees, Flora said it didn’t impact the clinic project, and added the city’s fees are still the lowest in Lake County and the region.

“We need a consistent standard. It’s my belief that the city is extremely business friendly,” said Flora. “But you can drive around this town and see the impact that the good old boys network has had on development in the city over the years, and those days need to stop.”

Commissioner Erin McCarrick agreed that the city is a business friendly environment, with staff working on each project specifically. She said they could push the project off for two weeks to look at it more closely but added that she didn’t want to do that and delay it.

Flora encouraged the commission to approve it and move forward. If there are areas in the zoning ordinance that the commissioners have concerns about, Flora said staff is not resistant to a more streamlined process.

“We can streamline it so much that the commission has absolutely nothing to do if that’s what you and the city council would like,” but that’s a different discussion, Flora said.

He said he’s happy to take any recs from the commission to the council to streamline it. However, he said they need to make sure there are conditions of approval, and regulations are followed and that there’s “an orderly and consistent development pattern in the city moving forward.”

Commissioner Fawn Williams moved to adopt the conditional use permit, sign permit and categorical exemption to authorize the clinic’s operation. Commissioner Robert Coker seconded and the commission approved the motion 5-0.

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