MIDDLETOWN – A Middletown couple has filed an appeal to the Lake County Board of Supervisors over the Planning Commission's approval last week of a water ski lake on Butts Canyon Road.

Milton and Ellen Heath filed the appeal Wednesday, according to Planning Department documents.

On Sept. 11 the Planning Commission approved Kurt Steil and Gary Johnson's Bonavita Estates, which includes five residential parcels on 534 acres and an 11-surface-acre water ski lake, as Lake County News has reported.

The lake would measure 2,100 feet long and 218 feet wide, and draw its 50-acre-foot capacity from a well.

Steil and Johnson had taken an earlier version of the plan, which then included 22 homes, to the Planing Commission in 2006, which voted at the time to require a focused environmental impact report.

However, with the addition of several new hydrological and biological studies, the Planning Commission voted 3-1 – with Commissioner Clelia Baur voting no – that the project could move forward with a mitigated negative declaration relating to its impact. The commission also granted a use permit, tentative merger resubdivision map, a deviation and deferred improvement agreement for the project.

Milton Heath and several other neighbors spoke against the lake at the lengthy Sept. 11 meeting, raising concerns about water, sound and biological resources.

His appeal cites “insufficient data” on the project, particularly relating to hydrological information. He faulted a hydrological study's assumptions about the project, specifically its evaporation statistics which were based on Lake Sonoma, which Heath said is located in the coastal climate range and differs too much from local conditions to be accurate.

He said the commission's decision ignores more than one “potentially significant impact,” including gas emissions and contaminants from boats that he suggests could damage the area's groundwater; seismic activity, which he said could lead to a catastrophe; and the governor's recent declaration of a drought.

Heath's appeal letter also faulted the commission for disregarding information from area residents about their wells already going dry.

He said the county has “reprehensively” deferred the project to mitigated negative declaration status. By doing so, Heath says the county ignored the lake's significant impacts in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act.

“We urge the Board of Supervisors to reject his project until a 'thorough' Environmental Impact Report is completed,” he writes.

The matter will be scheduled for a future Board of Supervisors meeting.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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