Lakeport City Council advances Waterstone Residential housing project to Sept. 20 hearing
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A proposal for new homes and apartments near Westside Community Park will advance to a public hearing before the Lakeport City Council later this month.
In a unanimous vote at its Tuesday night meeting, the council approved introducing the Waterstone Residential housing project’s zone change ordinance and scheduled a public hearing for Sept. 20 for the ordinance and adoption of the mitigated negative declaration and general plan amendment for the proposed project.
The Lakeport Planning Commission discussed the project at its Aug. 10 meeting and recommended the council’s approval of it.
Waterstone Residential, owned by Peter Schellinger, is proposing the Parkside Residential Project, which will include 128 new apartment units and 48 cluster homes on the 15.16-acre property at 1310 Craig Ave.
Schellinger said the apartments will have solar power as part of his aim for them to be net zero. The homes will be plumbed for solar.
The project is on a portion of the Schellinger Subdivision, a 96-lot single-family residential subdivision approved in 2005 that included three phases. Peter Schellinger is the nephew and son of the original developers, Schellinger Brothers.
The first phase consisted of 31 lots, of which 17 were constructed and 14 remain vacant, with the Schellingers still hoping to develop them.
Community Development Director Jenni Byers said the project’s second and third phases did not submit for a final map and were never developed, and so the tentative vesting map has now expired.
Byers said that zoning allows the property to be developed with 19 units per acre, or up to 292 total units. However, she said Waterstone is proposing a density of 11 units per acre.
She said that due to legislative changes, the city is being robbed of its ability to approve some projects. The developer could put a home, an accessory unit and a junior accessory unit all on one parcel due to recent laws, which amounts to a triplex. As such, 195 units could be built with no review at all.
Byers said she is concerned about legislation to hold local governments to doing their job and allowing for more home building. She said she wanted to show the tremendous pressure the state is putting on cities and jurisdictions.
Lake County has lost 10% of its housing to wildfires in recent years, and due to the Mendocino Complex — which led to the evacuation of the entire city of Lakeport in the summer of 2018 — Byers said staff and the council understand the fire threat.
The project was shared earlier this year with then-Lakeport Fire Chief Jeff Thomas and he had no issues with layout. Thomas, who attended via Zoom, said in a message that Cal Fire did not respond to a request for comment on the project.
Comments submitted ahead of the meeting included a letter from Kim Costa, representing a group of Parkside Subdivision residents, and one from Dennis Rollins, chair of the Westside Community Park Committee, asking that park mitigation fees charged for the project be allocated directly to the paving at the park’s parking lot.
City acknowledges impacts, sees opportunities
Peter Schellinger said his uncle had been working for years to develop the second and third phases of the original development after the Great Recession, but the cost of infrastructure prevented it.
He said he founded Waterstone with one of the larger homebuilders in the country. He wants to create a mixture of housing types to create a better community and reduce the cost per unit so it would become more economically feasible to proceed with projects on land that was undevelopable in current form.
Schellinger hired the original architect of the Parkside Subdivision, Jon Worden, in order to keep a similar character in building design, and resemble what was built in phase one.
The cluster homes, at around 1,200 square feet, are considered a midlevel housing option, with Schellinger estimating home prices of about $400,000 per home.
“We are excited to present this tonight and hope we’ll get your support,” Schellinger said.
City Manager Kevin Ingram said staff wouldn’t argue that the project didn’t represent an impact on the existing neighborhood.
Over the last several years, the city has worked actively with the prior developer to get that existing development up and off the ground. “We need housing in Lakeport but unfortunately the economy was just not allowing that previous development to play out,” said Ingram, attributing it to the escalating costs of construction.
Ingram said the city appreciated the opportunity to work with Schellinger’s team to come up with a model to get more housing in play. They’ve pressed a number of developers for more starter home models and Ingram said Schellinger’s property offers a great opportunity to the city.
He said the existing land use designations at the site allow for the density that’s being proposed. What it doesn’t allow for is the apartment type design, which was what was spurring Schellinger’s request of the council.
With traffic being a big concern for residents, Ingram said it would be warranted for the city to see how traffic is functioning at the project site.
Ingram said the city wanted to hear from the public, noting that staff can see it from the 40,000 foot level, but it’s good to hear from the neighbors.
“It’s my opinion that this is a good project that requires the council’s attention,” he said.
Opponents raise water, traffic concerts
The council heard from several community members who chiefly challenged the project on the grounds of fire safety, water supply and traffic.
Sky Hoyt, who does not live in the subdivision, raised concerns about water supply and suggested that tertiary water treatment is needed in the city.
Costa said the neighbors are trying to educate themselves and understand the state’s housing mandates. She said they are trying to be reasonable in their thinking, and wanted the city to be mindful of the neighborhood already there.
For her, safety was a big issue, including ingress and egress, and traffic. She suggested a medium housing option was necessary.
Her attorney, Andre Ross, suggested to the council that there are health, safety and welfare issues that need to be looked at closely before project approval, adding he believed the developer was abandoning the original subdivision. He said the developer should be put on a slower track.
Schellinger said he appreciated engaging with the community. Referring to the larger density that the current zoning allows, he explained, “We’re not doing that. I don’t think you want that. That's not a really cohesive development scheme.”
He said a lot of work went into the plan, and with it a lot of sensitivity. Schellinger said he doesn’t blame residents for being disappointed, as there is a lot of disappointment around the original project not working. But he believes the new plan is a good one.
Referring to the 14 single family home lots still undeveloped in the first phase, he said his uncle would not have endorsed this new development plan knowing he was going to hold those 14 lots to develop someday.
Byers said people have an incorrect idea of what affordable housing means. Schellinger is going for a grant for the neighborhood’s streets system, she said, not to make it low income.
During her life, she said she’s needed every type of housing that the development offers, from the time she was a single mom in college who needed affordable housing, to later graduating and making enough to buy a house and now moving into something smaller.
Schellinger said the cluster homes will be eligible for a down payment assistance program through Cal Home; qualifying applicants can make up to 120% of the average median income.
Lakeport has the ability to access that program. “We’re really excited about that,” he said, explaining those homes make up the “missing middle” in the housing market that not many people have been able to figure out and address.
He said they are not talking about homeless housing, which is a different development concept altogether, with completely different financing, requiring a huge subsidy and an ongoing fund for the services.
The people who will live in the new development aren’t homeless, they’re productive and contributing to society, he said.
Councilman Michael Green said that while he was on the Lakeport Planning Commission, he never had a project anywhere close to Schellinger’s come before him.
He said Schellinger is bringing in a different type of housing configuration. Acknowledging there are water supply problems, Green said shutting down this project isn’t the thing to ask, it’s to have the city stop allowing hookups.
Green and other council members thanked both Schellinger and those who spoke against the project for their input.
Mayor Stacey Mattina said it’s reasonable for the neighbors to be disappointed. She loves the Parkside neighborhood and its homes, and had been looking forward to seeing it finished.
“All these years have passed and we still have nothing,” she said.
Green moved to introduce the project and set it for a second reading, with Councilman Kenny Parlet seconding and the council approving the motion 4-0.
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