LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — At the end of its third appearance before the Lakeport City Council, a new housing development that will make up the next phase in the Parkside Subdivision next to Westside Community Park received the go ahead.
Peter Schellinger of Waterstone Residential received a 3-1 vote from the council, with Councilman Michael Froio voting no due to concerns about the project’s potential effect on the residents of the existing homes at Parkside Subdivision.
Schellinger’s Parkside Residential Project at build out will include 128 new apartment units and 48 cluster homes on the 15.16-acre property at 1310 Craig Ave.
It’s on a portion of the 96-lot Schellinger Subdivision, approved in three phases in 2005. The first phase consisted of 31 lots, where 17 homes were built by Schellinger Brothers, Peter Schellinger’s father and uncle.
Community Development Director Jenni Byers, who noted the City Council had seen the project twice before, said it had been revised to focus on converting 3.42 acres of the property from R-1, or low density residential, to R-3, high density residential.
The council’s action on Tuesday clears the way for Schellinger to move forward with building a 64-unit apartment community in the project’s southern phase. Waterstone will separately seek approval for a tentative parcel map creating four separate parcels for the entire project site, including the other 64 apartments and the 48 cluster homes, meant to be middle market housing.
Schellinger told the council he planned to come back in early 2023 to seek the approvals for the cluster homes. He anticipates that he would start work on building those cluster homes during the 16 to 18 months it would take to build the first 64 apartments.
Byers said California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued guidance to local governments in October regarding mitigating wildfire risk from proposed developments in fire-prone areas.
That guidance focuses on areas including project density, project location, water supply and infrastructure, evacuation and emergency access, and fire hardening structures and homes.
Byers said that the project location is outside of the wildland urban interface and based on Bonta’s guidelines, it’s an appropriate building site.
In August, the Lakeport Planning Commission discussed the project and recommended the council’s approval of it.
The Lakeport City Council heard it first in September, at which time the council approved introducing its 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 Schellinger was seeking.
The council took that action after hearing from the neighbors at the Parkside Subdivision, who brought up concerns including traffic, noise, a lack of consistency in planning and housing types, impact on quality of life and ongoing issues with their current subdivision, such as lighting.
When the project came back for the second hearing, Schellinger asked the council to continue the public hearing for the general plan and zoning changes while he continued to meet with the neighbors to discuss the plans. At the same time, he said he was moving forward with seeking state financing for the project.
Schellinger said that, in hindsight, the request for a continuance was a pretty good idea. He said he’s spent a lot of time with city staff and the neighbors to talk through a lot of different issues.
That resulted in Schellinger pulling back on the development concept and concluding it was probably premature to try to develop it all at once.
About 10 days after the last hearing, Schellinger advanced a proposal to develop the southern phase, with plans to pull back the general plan amendment request for the northern phase.
He said over the following weeks he decided to come back with specific development applications when the funding is available for those phases.
In the meantime, “We have a clear line of sight” for the first 64 apartments, said Schellinger, who is optimistic that they will get Cal Home funding for the 38 cluster homes, at which time they will come back to the city for approval.
Schellinger said he would delay planning efforts on the remainder of the homes on the northern portion of the property until he knows the market conditions. He said he couldn’t imagine that would happen within the next three years.
Mark Borghesani, owner of Kelseyville Lumber, said it comes down to how the market and the demand has changed, noting the cost of development has put the private sector out of business for now.
He said he would like to see his employees and young people have the opportunity to purchase the homes Schellinger wants to build.
Through his business he’s dealt with the Schellingers in Lake County and in Santa Rosa. “They’re a good group,” Borghesani said. “They’re well respected up here and in Sonoma County.”
Parkside Subdivision resident Kim Costa submitted to the city another lengthy letter raising various issues with Schellinger’s project. She said the city “has been quite the cheerleader for this project” and neighbors’ concerns have been “relatively squashed.”
Costa said the project isn’t consistent with the general plan, and they don’t favor apartments in that area. “We’re not opposed to housing, we just think a high number of units out there doesn't fit.”
Christina Price of Lakeport, who also is a member of the Lake County Planning Commission, said she didn’t want people to lose sight of what’s going on. “This is a rezone.”
Price said the focus needs to be on housing and the ripple effect a project like Schellinger’s can have on the city and the county.
“It seems to me those apartments don’t belong there,” Councilman Froio said during the discussion.
The council also received a letter in support of the project from the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, read into the record by Assistant City Manager/Finance Director Nick Walker.
The letter, signed by Chamber Board President Bobby Dutcher, said the community is lucky that a company such as Waterstone Residential wants to develop here.
“The objections to this project are the usual thing,” the letter noted, pointing to issues such as roads and noise.
During the council discussion, Councilman Kenny Parlet bristled at the suggestion made by one of the Parkside Subdivision residents that the council members already had made up their minds about the project and were rubber-stamping it. Parlet said the staff had gone to significant effort to analyze the project and respond to concerns.
Froio said he didn’t think the apartment project would preserve the neighborhood. He also didn’t think it was a good infill development because he believed it would have a detrimental effect on the current residents.
He didn’t like putting high density housing next to a high fire area and could not agree that the project’s traffic impacts had been adequately mitigated. “The proposed project does not make Lakeport a better place to live.”
Mayor Stacey Mattina said there are things she likes about the project and things that make her nervous, but the city needs housing.
She recounted describing the project to her husband and her daughter, a college graduate, jumped into the conversation asking, “Wait, you mean there would be a place for me to actually live here?”
Mattina said neighborhoods will not look the same in the future, “because nobody can afford them.”
In three separate motions, all of them offered by Parlet, the council adopted the mitigated negative declaration and mitigated monitoring and reporting program, approved the
general plan amendment and introduced the proposed zone change ordinance, and scheduled a public hearing for the second reading of the zone change ordinance on Dec. 6. Froio was the lone dissenter on each of the votes.
Spurr said he decided to vote yes because this aspect of the project is a good starting point to see if it will turn out the way Schellinger is proposing.
“I hope I didn’t make a mistake,” Spurr said.
In other business on Tuesday, the council welcomed new Public Works employees Cody Morland and Lucy Avilez, and held a public hearing to introduce the draft ordinance modifying city guidelines for outdoor dining design, voted to set a second reading for Dec. 6 and adopt the draft resolution establishing the outdoor dining design guidelines.
The council also voted to adopt a resolution authorizing the city to submit an application to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for funding under the CPLHA Competitive Permanent Local Housing Allocation Program.
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Lakeport City Council approves new residential project near Westside Community Park
- Elizabeth Larson
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