LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Tuesday the Lakeport City Council unanimously approved an agreement with a Nevada firm to prepare the Lakeport Lakefront Revitalization Plan.
Design Workshop Inc. of Stateline was one of two firms that in January submitted proposals to the city, which had circulated 27 requests for proposal last year, according to city documents.
City Community Development Director Kevin Ingram reported that the city was awarded $95,342 by the California Department of Housing to complete the plan, with a $4,208 match required by the city.
The total cost of the agreement with Design Workshop is $98,420.
“I'm very excited to be bringing this agenda item before you this evening,” Ingram told the council, explaining that the plan is a key component to the city's overall economic development strategy.
The boundary of the project extends along the shoreline from C Street in the south to Clearlake Avenue to the north. Ingram said the plan proposes to focus on short-term and long-term goals that increase the economic viability for the shoreline and its relationship with the downtown business area.
Ingram said he was impressed with Design Workshop's plan to include the community in the planning process.
He said Design Workshop intended to begin work immediately if the agreement was approved, with a goal of having the plan ready to present to the council by the end of October.
Council members lauded the firm's proposal for its great ideas and its award-winning staff, which has experience in design projects across the Western United States. Notable projects include the South Shore District Plan in Lake Tahoe; the redevelopment plan for the harbor in Bellingham, Wash.; Union Park in Las Vegas; the Downtown Redding Transportation Plan; and the Front Street redevelopment in Crescent City.
The proposal can be seen in the agenda packet below, beginning on page 73.
The proposal's methodology calls for site reconnaissance, including reviewing current city documents and past plans; base mapping; preliminary site evaluation and market assessment; public outreach, including hosting meetings with stakeholder groups and the general public to describe the process and collect ideas; exploring alternative visions; drafting the preliminary and final plans; and project management.
Councilman Martin Scheel said the proposal document included great ideas.
Councilwoman Mireya Turner also pointed out that the firm had the proper number of staff assigned with the necessary expertise in the California Environmental Quality Act.
“This is one of the most exciting things we've gotten to do in the city,” said Mattina.
Councilman Kenny Parlet, referring to the different backgrounds of the firm's staff, said, “This just seems like a really exciting thing to me.”
Not everyone shared that feeling.
Local businesswoman Nancy Ruzicka and a small group of local citizens – some of them also members of the city's Parks and Recreation Committee – spoke against the agreement, even though it was to be paid for by grant funds.
Ruzicka, who didn't like the fact that the landscape architects with the firm got their certifications in other parts of the country, said the city should focus instead on Main Street. She asked why the city was going to do another plan when she said it had numerous others on the shelf that it had never pursued.
She said one plan from 1989 that she had helped work on called for an event center to be built on pilings over the lake. She suggested the city go back and pursue that plan.
Ingram noted that he was aware of such past proposals and that those plans had lacked a public outreach component.
He said the goal was not to start over, and that one of the first tasks in developing the new plan is to bring all of those previous documents together and provide them to Design Workshop, which can use them in its process.
Suzanne Lyons, a former city council member who now sits on the Parks and Recreation Committee, asked why the committee hadn't been informed of the proposal or that the process was under way. City staff and council members responded by saying that the plan was about economic development not parks, and that the process had not yet started.
Mattina said no plan had yet been done. “You haven't missed anything.”
Lyons followed up by accusing the city of failing to do community outreach, claiming that people don't come to meetings or support the city because they feel totally disenfranchised.
City Manager Margaret Silveira said that the process would officially start once the consultant was on board.
Parlet said that all the council was doing was picking a consultant, and that the city had followed public noticing procedures. “It's absurd to say, 'Wow, we're in the dark.'”
Lyons responded by saying, “We feel that we were left out of the loop.”
Silveira then took the step of apologizing to Lyons for not inviting the Parks and Recreation Committee to be part of the consultant selection process.
Ingram noted that he's spoken to numerous community groups about the goal of having the new lakefront revitalization plan.
Ruzicka then returned to the microphone to suggest that the plan be pieced out in phases. When the council said it couldn't be done that way, she suggested giving the grant money back to the state.
Suzanne Russell, who sits on the Lakeport Planning Commission, said she wanted Ingram to be instrumental in the specifics of the work.
Ingram assured her that his department would be heavily involved in the process, reviewing it on an ongoing basis and assisting with holding the community meetings. He said they would be in constant contact with the consultant.
Turner moved to approve the agreement, with Mattina seconding and the council approving it 5-0.
Also on Tuesday, the council voted to direct staff to issue requests for proposal for consultants to work on a possible revenue tax measure; introduced the first reading of an ordinance regarding the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee and set a public hearing for April 19; heard a presentation on volunteer hours at the Lakeport Police Department; and presented proclamations designating the month of April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month.
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Council approves agreement for lakefront revitalization plan preparation
- Elizabeth Larson
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