CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Planning Commission this week will consider establishing appropriate regulations for warming centers and homeless shelters.

The commission will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

Manager Greg Folsom's report to the commission explains that the Clearlake City Council has asked the commission to come up with a recommendation for zoning and regulating warming centers as well as homeless shelters.

A warming center operated in the city for several months beginning in December 2013, Folsom noted in his report.

“By all accounts, the center was poorly located and poorly run as the City had no regulations regarding where such a facility could be located or operated,” he said.

He also mentioned a warming center that the Lake Ministerial Association operated at the Seventh-day Adventist Church outside of Lakeport this winter. A few days before the center closed, a neighbor was stabbed by a homeless man near the warming center.

Folsom noted that the Lake Ministerial Association is looking to open a permanent location somewhere in the county.

He said staff suggests that any application for a warming center or homeless shelter include a requirement for a conditional use permit and an operating plan, which would require any application to go to the planning commission.

At that point, the commission could, on a case-by-case basis, put limitations on operating hours, number of beds, security, parking, staffing, animals and other matters.

“Staff needs direction from the Planning Commission with regard to several issues, including: zoning, conditional use permit requirement, and dates of operation vs. temperature triggers,” Folsom wrote in his report. “There may be other issues that the Planning Commission would like to consider in the overall regulations for warming centers and homeless shelters.”

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