LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As the county continues the process of phasing out its redevelopment agency, it’s preparing to take information on redevelopment-owned properties to an oversight committee that will decide what, ultimately, will happen to those holdings.
The Board of Supervisors is expected next week to make appointments to three oversight boards that will take part in the phaseout process.
Appointments of community members and county officials to the redevelopment successor agency oversight committees for the county of Lake and the cities of Lakeport and Clearlake are part of an untimed item on the board’s agenda for Tuesday, Feb. 7.
The oversight committees were established as part of the state legislation abolishing redevelopment. The groups will weigh in on how to dispose of redevelopment agency assets.
County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox said state legislation governing the dissolution of redevelopment assets says that local governments must dispose of assets purchased by redevelopment agencies with tax increment revenues.
As a result, it’s expected that many redevelopment-owned properties will end up being sold, with the proceeds going to taxing agencies that would have received the funds in the absence of redevelopment, including fire districts and schools.
Cox and his staff have been preparing reports on the specifics of how the Lake County Redevelopment Agency properties were purchased, and with what funding, in order to present that information to the committees.
For Cox, one of his top concerns is the Lucerne Hotel.
The hotel – nicknamed “the Castle” – was purchased in 2010 with county funding, not tax increment revenue, and therefore should revert to county ownership rather than being sold, Cox said.
“It was county money that was loaned to the redevelopment agency,” he said.
Cox added, “It’s clear, we can show that, because we have it in the loan document.”
He thinks the building can be transferred back to the county, and that the county could even take action to do so now.
However, out of an abundance of caution, Cox said he will take it to the oversight committee for approval.
Regarding other redevelopment-owned properties, funding is more complicated, said Cox.
He said that’s because a mixture of tax increment and county funding was used, or the audit trails were not as clear.
The Castle, said Cox, is the only property, in his opinion, in which the funding trail is so clear, “and I’m glad it’s this one,” he added.
Holding onto the Castle is particularly important, as Southern California-based Marymount College is considering a partnership with the county to locate a campus at there.
Cox said the county will host college officials in a visit later this month. “We want to make a good impression on them.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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