LAKEPORT – With only three council members in attendance Tuesday, the Lakeport City Council took public comment and forwarded its draft General Plan to the next step in the process.

City Councilmen Buzz Bruns and Bob Rumfelt were absent from Tuesday's meeting, leaving a three-person quorum.

Community Development Director Richard Knoll told the council that the main issue for consideration was a change to language regarding the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District property, which will now be a General Plan Area – which requires a thorough planning process – at the Planning Commission's suggestion.

"Currently, it's a blank slate," Knoll said of the land, which he estimated to be about 750 acres.

So far, he said, no General Plan work has been done for CLMSD in terms of defining policies, programs, objectives, transportation and utilities.

"That's the basis for the Planning Commission recommendation that has been made," said Knoll.

Mayor Roy Parmentier said he wanted to see an alteration of a policy discouraging annexation of prime agriculture lands, which are defined as having Class I and II soils.

That would impact the eventual CLMSD annexation. That land has been in city ownership for 25 years, said Knoll, and has been used for cattle grazing and spray irrigation to dispose of the city's treated wastewater.

Knoll said the CLMSD land includes 50 to 75 acres of prime ag lands that extend from the north into the CLMSD property. The issue, said Knoll, is the quality soil involved and the availability of water, which makes it prime ag property.

There has been a concern all along about the ag annexation policy, said Knoll, who suggested the council give direction and refer it back to the General Plan Committee.

Parmentier said he wanted it reworded "so it doesn't come back to bite us."

Only two people gave public comment, the first of them being Lakeport businesswoman Karan Mackey.

She presented a letter to the council regarding her concerns over the zoning of the Natural High School property, which is near her Lakeport English Inn bed and breakfast and is one of the last pieces of undeveloped shoreline in the city.

Mackey said she wanted the public to understand that a previous council had designated the land – which is owned by the Lakeport Unified School District – as open space in the current General Plan.

However, as Lake County News previously reported, the city of Lakeport has been working with Boeger Land Development on a deal to wrap the city-owned Dutch Harbor property and the adjacent Natural High land into one parcel for a massive hotel project. The city signed a development proposal deal that give Boeger first right of refusal on the Dutch Harbor land.

At the request of the developer, the council has now initiated a zoning change in the draft General Plan for the property, from open space to resort residential, Mackey said. That would clear the way for the proposed hotel project.

"This piece of property is invaluable," said Mackey, explaining that the community constantly uses the property.

"It's important to me that people remember that that is not a minor discussion," Mackey said of the suggested zoning change.

Rather than taking that step, she urged the council to acquire the land through grant funding sources, telling them it was their responsibility to save the property as open space for future lake access. She added that she is fine with the Dutch Harbor property being developed.

Mackey emphasized Natural High's uniqueness. The land was first used as a school in 1913, she said.

The only other public comment on the plan came from Cheri Holden, a member of the Sierra Club Lake Group, who told the council that she hoped they would incorporate "smart growth" into the General Plan.

Initially, Parmentier said he didn't want to vote on the plan without a full council, but Knoll said it was possible to make amendments to the plan and move it forward. "This is not a final vote my any means," said Knoll, with it required to come back to the council and commission in the future.

Councilman Jim Irwin asked that approval be held off, because he wanted more time to consider the plan, but Parmentier pushed it forward, saying at this rate the plan won't be approved until 2008.

Councilman Ron Bertsch made the motion to approve the Planning Commission recommendations on the CLMSD property and make modifications to the Land Use, Urban Boundary and Conservation elements; change the policy on prime agricultural land annexation; approve an update on the CLMSD land to the draft General Plan; and move the plan to its final stage, including circulation of the draft environmental impact report and consideration of the final plan's adoption.

Parmentier and Bertsch outvoted Irwin 2-1.

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