Lakeport City Council to hold public hearing on proposed marijuana cultivation ordinance

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council this week will hold its first hearing on a proposed ordinance to govern how medical marijuana cultivation is handled in the city.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.

The meeting’s consent agenda – which includes items considered routine and noncontroversial the council acts on at one time, usually without discussion – include ordinances, warrant registers from May 9 and 15, and minutes from the May 7 council meeting.

Planning Services Manager Andrew Britton will present to the council the proposed marijuana cultivation ordinance, which resulted from the work of a committee of community members and city staff the council directed be formed earlier this year. It can be found in the agenda packet below, beginning on page 23.

Britton reported that the committee met four times in March and April, eventually voting unanimously at an April 17 meeting to forward the document to the Lakeport Planning Commission for consideration.

On May 8 the planning commission voted unanimously to recommended the city council adopt the ordinance with some revisions, according to Britton.

He said the proposed ordinance “restricts the cultivation of medical marijuana in residential zoning districts to detached, enclosed and secure accessory buildings; limits the cultivation area to a maximum of 80 square feet; requires security and odor control measures to be in place; addresses the proximity of marijuana cultivation activities to schools, parks and childcare facilities; and includes other measures intended to address the potential problems associated with the cultivation of medical marijuana.”

If the council accepts the draft ordinance’s first reading, a second reading is tentatively scheduled for the council’s meeting on Tuesday, June 18.

Also on Tuesday, the council will designate a voting delegate for the League of California Cities annual conference, which will be held in Sacramento Sept. 18-20.

The council also will host a closed session to discuss one case of anticipated litigation.

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.

052113 Lakeport City Council Agenda Packet

Clear Lake hitch stakeholders group to meet May 16

LAKEPORT, Calif. – A group of stakeholders in the petition for the Clear Lake hitch’s endangered species status review will meet on Thursday, May 16.

The meeting will take place beginning at 3:30 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

Co-chairs of the group include Peter Windrem of the Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch; Lake County Farm Bureau Executive Director Claudia Street; and Lake County Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Melissa Fulton.

Last fall, the Center for Biological Diversity submitted petitions at the state and federal levels to list the Clear Lake hitch – a fish native to Clear Lake – as an endangered species.

On March 6, the California Fish and Game Commission made a determination that the state petition had merit and directed that a one-year review period begin. That review take place prior to making a final determination for the endangered species designation.  

The Thursday meeting will include representatives of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which will provide an opportunity for Lake County stakeholders to ask questions concerning the petition.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking input from any and all Lake County residents, businesses, organizations pertaining to the listing petition.

The deadline for all input for the review process is Friday, June 14. Input should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . The Lake County Chamber requests that they be copied on any input by sending an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

If you are not sure how about why this California endangered species listing may impact you, make sure to attend the meeting.

County staff, supervisors discuss latest on Lakeside Heights landslide situation

LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Tuesday morning the Board of Supervisors received an update from county staff and fielded questions from a resident of the Lakeside Heights subdivision on the work to find the cause of a landslide that has destroyed several homes and damaged county utility infrastructure.

For nearly two months, the north Lakeport subdivision of 29 homes has been the site of a landslide that has led to numerous seven red-tagged homes and voluntary evacuation notices for about 10 other homes, according to residents. However, the precise cause of the ground movement remains at issue.

Staff from several county departments were on hand to give the board an update on the situation, from studies and monitoring currently under way to safety measures for residents.

Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger, who oversees the county’s sewer and water facilities, said a geotechnical report and a second leak report are being finished.

A leak detection test performed last Thursday found two leaks, one on the north end of Lancaster Road, the other at the west end near Oxford Drive. “Those were repaired within 24 hours,” said Dellinger.

A March 25 leak test hadn’t found any issues with the county system but suggested a homeowners association irrigation pipe may have been at fault. Dellinger said the two companies that performed the tests are now reviewing each others’ works based on the differences in their findings.

Dellinger had received board approval to do the second test because of continued ground movement.

A design for a longterm sewer bypass has been completed, but Dellinger said no further work will be done until the county knows if it will receive state funding for a recommended supplemental geotechnical report.

A compound water meter was installed on Monday to help compare the amount of water that goes into the subdivision in the main line and how much is being used by individual homes, Dellinger said. That meter will be monitored daily to determine if new leaks are forming in the system.

The county also is moving a sewer bypass to discharge onto Downing Drive because a sewer manhole was compromised, he said. “That is an indication that the land is still moving.”

Dellinger said he and his staff are working with state officials to fulfill additional information requests necessary to be considered for state funding.

Supervisor Anthony Farrington thanked county staff and – referencing the recent national media attention the landslide has garnered – said the county and residents together have elevated the issue.

Farrington, noting his frustration with the slow movement at the state level regarding the request for help, said he was surprised about the finding of the new leaks.

Dellinger explained that the leaks were found in linear fractures that run the length of polybutylene pipe. One was estimated at less than 20 gallons a minute, the other about 10 gallons a minute. He said the second leak detection company that found the leaks said they would have put out less water when the ground was compacted around the pipes.

He said the leak found near Oxford Drive is of concern because they are seeing pavement separation well out of the area where they believed the unstable ground was, which is why getting a completed geotechnical report was so important.

“The wait is the hardest part,” Farrington noted during the discussion.

“No question,” Dellinger replied.

Dellinger’s fiscal manager, Jan Coppinger, said the superintendent who fixed the leaks noted that the polybutylene pipe is very flexible in the center. That means the leaks won’t necessarily be where the ground movement is, but will be more toward the valves and the pipes’ connections.

Supervisor Denise Rushing said the county needed two plans – one for if there was state funding and a second for if there wasn’t.

Monitoring changes

Public Works Director Scott De Leon, the county’s incident commander on the Lakeside Heights emergency, said county staff is still trying to get the county infrastructure out of harm’s way and continues to work on those two scenarios.

Rushing asked if it was fair to say that they didn’t really know what was going on with the underlying geology. Dellinger replied that the movement was more than originally thought.

Rushing asked when they might have answers. Dellinger said hydrological studies could take months, while geotechnical work could be done in a matter of weeks.

“So we’re still looking at weeks here,” she said.

She followed up by asking what had happened on the ground’s surface in the past week. Dellinger said water is still coming out of the ground at Downing Drive and the north end of Lancaster Road has a crack, with the ground dropping about 4 inches and another fissure opening further.

Farrington, who said he last visited the subdivision on Monday night, said the foundations in the subdivision weren’t monolithic, and some of what was done raised issues about construction integrity.

He said some were slabs, some were perimeter foundations without rebar, still others were concrete pier post, which he said pointed to a historical knowledge of soil instability.

De Leon said a drilled pier foundation is nonstandard for general soil or foundation construction and is used in areas of weak soils or fill.

In reviewing the subdivision’s construction plans, county officials noted unique features, including a drain underneath the sewer line on Downing Drive, which also has check dams and lines that run off of it laterally, De Leon said. “Clearly subsurface water was anticipated at some point in time.”

He agreed with Farrington that it appeared there was a historic knowledge of conditions that required special construction.

De Leon told the board that the landslide continued to inch toward Hill Road, and it was being monitored daily.

He also reported that the county’s research revealed that the subdivision’s roads were dedicated for the exclusive use of residents and service vehicles – police, fire and mail. Because they’re not considered public roads, the sheriff’s office has the authority to tell people to leave.

Due to concerns from residents about people being in the area who shouldn’t be, De Leon said they’ve instituted a policy that county staff only visits the neighborhood in county vehicles. Residents are being urged to call 911 if they see people coming into the subdivision at night who don’t belong there.

Sheriff’s Capt. Chris Macedo told the board that county staff has been doing an excellent job responding to the situation, and is taking a very methodical approach to solving the problem.

He said staff are doing everything they can, working nights and weekends. “You should be proud of them.”

Resident asks about leak tests, size of leaks

Randall Fitzgerald, one of the last remaining homeowners still in his home on Lancaster Road, thanked Special Districts and Public Works staff on behalf of the subdivision’s residents. He said some of the efforts have been above and beyond the call of duty. “It doesn’t go unnoticed.”

Fitzgerald then asked county staff a series of questions relating to the accuracy of the March 25 leak detection test, as well as the technology used.

Dellinger said he was confident in the work done during that test. Coppinger added that different technologies are available for leak detection, and there is debate over which is best, but no technology is perfect.

She said the second leak detection firm told county staff that the leaks were less before the earth was removed from around the pipes, and the water that escaped wasn’t enough to be considered significant or to damage the subdivision.

“We are moving forward. We’re going to expect more leaks,” she said, adding they would address any new leaks as soon as possible.

When Fitzgerald asked if the March 25 test was flawed, Dellinger said he didn’t know. Coppinger added that the two leak detection companies the county has used to study the area were going to compare their tests for accuracy.

Fitzgerald asked how the county knew how much water went into the subdivision before the new meter was installed. Dellinger said they monitored home usage, but this meter was meant to increase the accuracy. In response, Fitzgerald asked if it was fair to say that they didn’t know how much water was going in before the meter’s installation, Dellinger said yes, other than assumptions for tank storage, pipe diameter, gravity and reads on individual meters.

Fitzgerald also asked about if the water found when working on a manhole on April 30 was related to a leak in the pipe 50 to 70 feet from it in the water line. Dellinger said he didn’t know but hoped to be able to answer that question.

Using the estimates of the water leaks’ volumes, Fitzgerald asked if it was possible that millions of gallons of water could have gone into the hillside since late March. Dellinger said he couldn’t speculate.

“If you’re asking for a lot of speculation, we’re going to need the data,” said Rushing.

Fitzgerald said the questions were meant to lead to the data, and Rushing suggested that compiling a list of questions would be good.

Farrington also asked questions of staff about residents’ accounts of a fire hydrant that may have been shut off improperly following a house fire on Oxford. Residents have stated to Lake County News that the fire occurred in March. Dellinger told the board he could look into the matter.

Rushing encouraged staff to capture all of the questions. “We need to get it all out on the table and find out what exactly is happening,” she said.

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.