ELIZABETH LARSON

LAKE COUNTY NEWS

LAKEPORT – The Lakeport City Council's busy agenda for this Tuesday includes a public hearing on an ordinance regarding the city's eminent domain powers, a land swap for the city's new firehouse and an update on Westshore Pool.

A new state law, SB 53, requires city and county redevelopment agencies to place in their redevelopment plans a description of their program for acquiring property through eminent domain.

So far, both the county and the City of Clearlake have added those statements to their plans, and Lakeport is set to hold a hearing on their plan description on Tuesday.

Of the three major local government branches, only the county can use eminent domain should it choose to, as Lake County News previously reported. However, County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox said the county has no plans to use the controversial property acquisition method.

In the case of Clearlake, that city's eminent domain ability expired, according to that city's administrator, Dale Neiman.

Lakeport has never had eminent domain included in its plan due to its controversial nature, city Community Development Director Richard Knoll previously told Lake County News.

However, late last year Lakeport Mayor Roy Parmentier began to broach the topic of the city adding it to the redevelopment plan, a process Knoll said could be time consuming and expensive – with a price tag of as much as $60,000.

The council will hold a public hearing on Ordinance 866 Tuesday, which will add to the redevelopment plan a statement on Lakeport's current eminent domain use status, which so far is nonexistent.

The council on Tuesday also will discuss approving a land exchange agreement between the city and the Lakeport Fire Protection District.

For the last few years, the city and the fire district have been working on a land swap that would give the city a 2.5-acre, fire district-owned parcel on Bevins, with the fire district taking in return a piece of property on Larrecou, where it plans to build a new fire station.

The deal has been slowed by the need to create a parcel map for the Larrecou property and testing for toxic waste on that site.

In other city business up for discussion Tuesday, the council will consider approving guidelines for a first-time homebuyer program and sign a notice of completion on the Westshore Pool's improvements.

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7. It will be preceded by a budget workshop – which is open to the public – at 5 p.m.

Lakeport City Hall is located at 225 Park St., Lakeport.

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