LAKEPORT, Calif. — Lake Family Resource Center is preparing to relocate its Lakeport facilities, including its child care services, from the Vista Point Shopping Center to a new site on Parallel Drive.

The relocation plan is moving forward thanks to a use permit approval by the Lakeport Planning Commission last Wednesday, allowing the new location — formerly an office building for Ruzicka Associates and owned by Nancy Ruzicka, who submitted the permit application — to house a day care facility.

The permit approval will allow the center to proceed with its plans to design and build a new child care center for its Early Head Start program, which serves children aged zero to 3 and their families.

Lake Family Resource Center, or LFRC, will first move its Lakeport offices and administrative staff to the new site by mid-December. Those offices will enter full operation in the new year, said Executive Director Lisa Morrow.

However, “Right this minute, the babies aren’t moving,” said Morrow at the Nov. 13 Planning Commission meeting, adding that the children in the Early Head Start program will stay at the Vista Point location until the end of June of 2025 when LFRC’s lease expires.

This delay in moving the children is due to the time required for funding applications, permitting and licensing, and building code-compliant facilities for children at the new location, Morrow explained in an interview after the meeting.

The Early Head Start program, once moved to the new facility, will serve a maximum of 23 infants and toddlers across four classrooms, according to Lakeport associate planner Victor Fernandez in his presentation at the planning meeting.

The facility will host 20 staff members onsite and have 22 to 24 parking spaces, operating Mondays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The plan also includes play structures for children. Fencing will be required around the play structures for safety.

Conditions for the project’s approval include installing fire infrastructure such as sprinklers and submitting a new parking plan with a clear layout, said Fernandez, who also emphasized that the permit is only for the existing building.

For any future expansion or new infrastructure, “They will have to go through new additional permits,” he said.

Toward the end of the discussion, planning commissioners voiced concerns over the driving speed limit near the new location.

Commissioner Nathan Maxman asked if the facility would have a school zone marking with the reduced speed limit.

Fernandez said he would need to look into it with the Public Works Department on “the process of adding those zones in there.”

Commissioner Kurt Combs suggested reducing the speed limit at the zone to 35 miles per hour.

“We would have to coordinate with the other city departments on those items. We weren't prepared to speak on that,” said Lakeport Community Development Director Joey Hejnowicz. “We can definitely look into it.”

Planning for moving children to the new location

“The children are not allowed to go into the current building as it is,” Hejnowicz reiterated in response to a public comment through Zoom regarding children’s move-in.

“We must follow child care licensing regulations, the Head Start Act, all building codes that would be involved with new construction etc,” Morrow told Lake County News following the meeting.

Morrow said completing the required procedures will likely exceed the current lease term. Accommodating the children after the lease ends remains a challenge for now.

By June 30, 2025, “We have to be out of there,” Morrow said. “I don’t anticipate that the new facility will be built by then."

Morrow said the center will be applying for funding to build the new child care facility from the Administration for Children and Families, which is already funding the Early Head Start program.

“They have about 120 days once we get that submitted, but we can’t submit it until we have all the plans and architectural drawings and all of that stuff in place,” Morrow said, explaining how the various steps are tied to each other.

“We do have a plan,” Morrow said of the center hiring an experienced project manager who’s working on the design, adding that “with the holidays, it’s going to take a little bit of time.”

Morrow expected the child care portion of the relocation project to be completed by September 2026, more than a year after the lease ends.

“The wheels of government turn slow,” Morrow said.

She added with a smile, “At least they are turning.”

Now LFRC is evaluating “alternatives to the space we're not going to be able to occupy," said Morrow about finding a location for the children during the gap year.

"In the next few months, we should have a solid plan," she said.

The necessity to move: An expiring lease and safety concerns

Morrow said the final decision for LFRC to move out of the current location that it has occupied for the past 27 years was prompted by Vista Point’s change of ownership.

Tribal Health purchased the property in February.

“When the building was sold to Tribal Health, they let us know that they would not be renewing our lease in June of 2025,” said Morrow. That notice came immediately after the purchase.

“They attempted to give us as much time as they possibly could,” Morrow said.

While acknowledging that Tribal Health has been “very supportive,” Morrow said she did not want to speculate why they wouldn’t renew the lease with the center.

Morrow subsequently told Lake County News that the new owners are planning “a full demolition of the Shopping Center.”

In fact, the idea of finding a new home for its Lakeport office isn’t new to Morrow. Safety at the current location has long been a concern.

“We’ve been talking about it for a long time,” said Morrow.

In February 2023, a roof collapsed in winter storms on the “old bowling alley” at the Vista Point Shopping Center. LFRC’s facilities which were located at the other side of the same building were red-tagged by the city, Morrow said.

The city decided to “shut down everything in there and we were shut down for 90 days," Morrow said of the mandatory evacuation at that time. After that, the building was deemed safe for temporary occupation by the city.

The building’s former owner was Matt Riveras of Donica LLC. Riveras is the son-in-law of Buzz Bruns, Lakeport’s mayor in 2007 when the City Council voted to sell the property to him.

On Dec. 5, 2023, the Lakeport City Council conducted a public nuisance abatement hearing where city officials repeatedly brought up the concerns over the building’s safety and ability to withstand heavy winter rains. The discussion took up most of the meeting time.

The council then voted unanimously for moving forward on the abatement at the end of the three-and-a-half-hour-long hearing.

The abatement order came after 16 years of frustration during which city officials and residents felt that the blighted condition of the property had negatively affected the city’s ability to attract new businesses.

“It wasn’t a dilapidated shopping center when we moved in 27 years ago, but it was on its way, and it’s just, you know, fallen into disrepair over the years,” Morrow said.

For Morrow, the expiring lease is “necessitating an urgent and strategic response to secure a new, stable location to continue our vital services.”

Now LFRC has entered into a lease and purchase agreement with Nancy Ruzicka for the property on Parallel Drive, said Morrow.

“Plans are underway to construct a new child development center on the Parallel Drive property,” Morrow said.

Speaking about the new location, Morrow observed, “It’s going to be so much better.”

“It’s a beautiful building with a fountain out in front that never works,” said Ruzicka at Wednesday’s meeting. “It wasn’t the right thing to do because we had a water shortage.”

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