LAKEPORT, Calif. – In a surprising development on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors turned down the proposed findings of fact for an appeal it originally had granted last month for a new Dollar General store in Middletown, which now will require the board to hold a special meeting next week.
 
On April 18, the Board voted 3-2 – with Supervisor Rob Brown and Supervisor Jim Steele voting no – to grant the appeal of Texas-based Cross Development of a January Lake County Planning Commission decision to deny a design review permit for the major use permit for the Dollar General project proposed for 20900 State Highway 29, as Lake County News has reported.
 
On Tuesday, the board was set to approve the findings of fact on which that decision was based.
 
County Counsel Anita Grant explained that the county zoning ordinance requires the board to approve the findings of fact within 45 days of making a decision on an appeal.
 
Tuesday marked 35 days since the decision, Grant said, adding that June 2 was the deadline.
 
Such approvals on findings of fact tend to be fairly routine once the board has made a decision. However, what followed on Tuesday hasn’t happened in the 25 years Grant has worked for the county, she said.
 
Rather than the board approving the findings, it ended up rejecting them based on the change in opinion of District 4 Supervisor Tina Scott, who raised issue with the findings’ statement that the Dollar General store conforms with community design criteria.
 
Scott’s change of mind resulted in a board majority being against the findings, not for them.
 
At the start of the discussion, Grant explained that the board could take public comment, but that it would not be considered “testimony” for the purposes of public hearing on the appeal, which had been closed during the April 18 meeting. Testimony could only be reopened if all interested parties had been noticed.
 
“The findings and final decision are before you for your final consideration this morning,” Grant said.
 
During public comment, community members focused significant concern on their belief that the project conflicts with the Middletown Area Plan.
 
Sierra Club Lake Group representative Victoria Brandon challenged the statement in the findings that the project conforms with applicable design manual review and the Middletown Area Plan.
 
She said that the Sierra Club group had submitted numerous letters detailing more than a dozen inconsistencies between the general plan, the Middletown Area Plan and the project.
 
“Taken together as a full picture it is really apparent, the community of Middletown over a period of years came together to form these planning guidelines to determine how they were going to grow in the future. And It’s as if they were written specifically to keep out this kind of formula development,” Brandon said.
 
She said the community is better served by a pattern of upscale development, suggesting Dollar General is exactly the opposite.
 
Middletown resident Lisa Kaplan also cited nonconformity with the Middletown Area Plan as one of her chief concerns. She said there is no justification for circumventing or adapting the county’s general or area plans to accommodate what is essentially a big box store that doesn’t fit character or scale of the community.
 
Kaplan said that allowing the project would set a precedent. She said the Middletown Area Plan’s intent is to keep Middletown’s small-town, historic feel, preclude big box stores and look toward Calistoga as a model.
 
She said Middletown residents opposed to the Dollar General there didn’t fill the board chambers like those in opposition to the Clear Lake Riviera Dollar General project proposal – which the board turned down on April 25 – because “We’re exhausted and focused on recovery.”
 
Kimberly Haynie said she has so far submitted about six letters to the county showing point by point – 27 points, to be exact – how the Dollar General project doesn’t fit with the Middletown Area Plan.
                    
The Middletown Area Plan includes a lot of specifics, but in general, Haynie said it’s meant to allow residents to have a voice in shaping their community. She read from the plan’s introduction, which said that “area plans are developed specifically to reflect community values and priorities.”
 
Also focusing on inconsistencies was Middletown resident Monica Rosenthal, who pointed out conflicts with the area and general plans.
 
She boiled down the issue this way: “This is about a box store coming into Middletown.”
 
Cross Development attorney Sabrina Teller asked for the board’s support of the findings of facts and the final decision.
 
Teller said county staff had documented in length how the store project meets the requirements of the Middletown Area Plan and county general plan, although she acknowledged community members didn’t agree.
 
“But determining compliance with plans is based on substantial evidence, objective criteria and expert planning judgment, not just popular opinion,” Teller said, adding that the law invests the board with the expertise to make the final decision.
 
Retired District 1 Supervisor Ed Robey said that allowing Dollar General – which he called a big box store – would have impacts on the community. “We don’t want to do things that will degrade our quality of life.”
 
Robey said Lake County doesn’t need to take whatever project is offered. “We need to have a whole new attitude,” he said, adding, “We’re on the brink of a whole new rebuild in the south county.”
 
Pointing to a large resort development proposed for the Guenoc Valley area, Robey said Lake County is one of the last pristine areas in the state. “We need to think of ourselves as someplace special, and make sure we have land use rules and standards that say, ‘no junk.’”
 
Supervisor Rob Brown, who has consistently voted against the project, said he has felt like he understands what the south county wants more now due to being involved more in fire recovery.
 
“We do have this golden opportunity out of disaster to do it right. We only get one chance to do it right,” said Brown, adding that allowing these types of businesses to come into the community without the community’s support is a mistake.
 
Scott, in explaining her view of the findings, said that while she doesn’t believe bringing a Dollar General into the community will destroy it, she needed to consider the project’s nonconformity with planning guidelines.
 
“Looking at the finding of facts, I agree, that the project does not meet the criteria specific in the Middletown Area Plan,” said Scott, a statement which was greeted with loud applause.
 
Supervisor Moke Simon, who represents Middletown, made clear during the board’s discussion that he maintained his support for the project.
 
It was the support that Simon – and his predecessor, Supervisor Jim Comstock – had shown the Middletown Dollar General, as part of their vision for the community, that Board Chair Jeff Smith said caused him to also support it.
 
Simon moved to approve the findings of fact, with Smith seconding. The motion failed with Brown, Scott and Supervisor Jim Steele voting against it.
 
“Because this has not happened in 25 years, where the findings of fact has not been approved from an intended decision of your board, I would encourage you to state which of the findings the majority of your board can no longer make based upon the evidence you received at the hearing on the 18th,” Grant said.
 
Scott cited paragraph 10f in the findings, which stated, “Community Development staff determined that with the staff’s recommended mitigation measures incorporated, the Project meets all design criteria specified in the Middletown Area Plan as most practicable.”
 
The board agreed to bring the matter back at the end of the meeting in order for the specific language to be reviewed.
 
When the board brought the matter back up later in the day, Scott again cited paragraph 10f of the findings, which in turn referenced Lake County Zoning Ordinance Sec. 54.5 (a)6. That section requires that the project conform with any applicable community design manual criteria, a finding which Scott didn’t believe could be made.
 
Grant then suggested that the board move to deny the appeal and to make the appropriate findings. With June 2 the deadline to accept the findings of fact, and no regular meetings planned before then, she said the board would need to set a special meeting to consider the revised findings.
 
Scott moved to make an intended decision to deny the the appeal and to come back with new findings, which was approved 3-2, with Simon and Smith voting no.
 
The board also followed up by voting unanimously to set a special meeting to consider the revised findings of fact – which Grant must draft – for 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 31, in the board chambers.
 
On Tuesday officials did not make clear whether the action could stop the project entirely, or if Cross Development would be required to redesign the project as proposed.
 
In July, the board had approved Cross Development’s appeal of a Lake County Planning Commission vote to deny the Middletown store plan a major use permit, allowing the project to move forward.
 
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