The suit was filed Friday in Lake County Superior Court.
It challenges the Board of Supervisors' decision to certify the project's environmental impact report (EIR) and the project approval the board gave the project on March 2 in a 3-2 vote, with Supervisors Denise Rushing and Anthony Farrington voting no.
In the suit, the Sierra Club asks for a writ of mandate commanding the county to set aside its EIR certification and project approvals, and seeks a stay on entitlements as well as attorney's fees and costs.
“Cristallago has a number of serious environmental effects, the EIR was inadequate, and the economic benefits that have been promised are implausible,” said Victoria Brandon, speaking on behalf of the Sierra Club Lake Group.
“Worst of all, the project obviously violates our general plan, and by approving it the Board of Supervisors not only set a dangerous precedent, they disregarded state planning and zoning law,” she said.
Cristallago would be built on 860 acres along Hill and Scotts Valley roads in north Lakeport. Plans at this stage propose 650 homes, 325 resort units – including a hotel – plus an equestrian center, parks, a commercial development, conference center, spa and an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus signature golf course.
Matt Boeger, president of Cristallago Development Corp., said he was “disappointed by efforts of the local Sierra Club to stop a project that will bring so many positive benefits to Lake County,” including an estimated 670 new jobs when the county's unemployment rate is hovering close to 20 percent.
He said Cristallago also is expected to inject $50 million annually into the local economy, which he said will generate nearly $1 million annually for the county coffers and $1 million for the local schools in impact fees.
“This project would be a huge boost at a time when the county really needs it the most,” he said.
He said he and his group have worked hard to address every impact and make Cristallago the greenest project in the county's history. Boeger added that it's likely the greenest destination resort community of its kind in the entire country.
“Cristallago is a great project for Lake County,” he said. “It is the right project in the right place. In fact it is in the only place in Lake County that can support a project like this.”
The Sierra Club Lake Group contends that the county violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by certifying the EIR, which it said fails to adequately describe the project and its environmental settings, doesn't evaluate its impacts and future project approvals subject to CEQA, doesn't coordinate the environmental review, lacks adequate analysis and mitigation of impacts, fails to properly analyze the water supply and project alternatives, and the responses to comments in the draft EIR aren't adequate.
In addition, the suit alleges the county failed to recirculate the draft EIR and didn't make the required findings in relation to significant effects the EIR identified, and that the project is inconsistent with the general plan.
The suit stated that the county has “failed to proceed in the manner required by CEQA and the Planning and Zoning Law, and its actions approving the Project and certifying the EIR constitute a prejudicial abuse of discretion.”
Brandon said the Sierra Club took the action “to defend our Community Growth Boundaries, maintain our ability to guide future growth, and ward off destructive sprawl.”
The Sierra Club Lake Group's position paper on Cristallago said its environmental impacts will be “severe,” and will include disturbing a half million cubic yards of soil, much of which is asbestos-laden serpentine, and will demolish nearly 100 acres of oak woodlands.
The group contends that the impacts on air quality are likely to force the county out of compliance with state and federal standards. Other concerns include loss of rare plants and undiscovered archeological sites, increased traffic and impacts on water supply, possible sedimentation and sprawl.
The position paper stated that the EIR identified several significant and unavoidable impacts from Cristallago, which necessitated “findings of overriding considerations” by the Board of Supervisors.
The findings the board made “were entirely based on Cristallago’s supposed economic benefits,” which the group called “extremely implausible” based on less available investment, golf's nationwide decline and the removal of a dedicated marina facility from the plan.
“Given the shaky financial condition of the developers and the unimaginative, financially implausible characteristics of the project, rather than becoming an economic engine for Lake County, Cristallago will most probably become one of our many paper subdivisions,” the document said.
Boeger explained that the Lake County Planning Department “has proceeded with this project application using the utmost caution and due process.”
He said the EIR report itself took over three years and $1 million to complete, and the project has undergone at least seven public hearings.
Boeger said Cristallago fully mitigates all of the environmental impacts, and there are no endangered plants or animals on the site.
All infrastructure issues have been dealt with to the satisfaction of the Lake County department heads and every interested party had the opportunity to voice their opinions in front of the Lake County policy makers, he said.
“Unfortunately, the local Sierra Club is no longer interested in being a constructive part of the county process,” he said. “They are only interested in closing the doors in Lake County to economic development and job creation, in spite of the vote of the duly elected representatives of the people of Lake County.”
Boeger said the issue really comes down to who should control the land use process in the county – the citizens who elect the board or the Sierra Club and its attorneys.
“I hope a number of the 70,000 citizens of Lake County will stand up and tell the 300 members of the local Sierra Club that Lake County belongs to them and no one else,” he said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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