LAKEPORT, Calif. – Property owners in a north Lakeport subdivision have filed suit against the county of Lake, alleging that the county water system was responsible for a landslide that damaged several homes earlier this year.

The Lakeside Heights property owners filed suit against the county late last week.

The suit – which names the county of Lake and 100 as-yet unidentified defendants, or “Does” – alleges inverse condemnation, dangerous condition of public property and negligence, and seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

Plaintiffs listed in the suit include the Lakeside Heights Homeowners Association, Mark Tanti, Jim Andrews, Argonaut Properties LLC, Odell Landers III, Kory Hudson, Paul Loewen, Sheryl Loewen, Garey Hurn, Jonathon Gibson, Rachell Gibson, Terry Blair, Carol Blair, Robert Deuchar, Lois Deuchar, Jose Martinez Flores, Scott Spivey, Robin Spivey, Roderick Schnabl Jr., Jagtar Singh, Manpreet Gill, Blanka Doren, Eleanor Young, Michael Kropa, Janice Kropa, Randall Fitzgerald, Julie Bowman, Tyrone Steenburgh, Nancy Steenburgh, Kevin Nguyen, Lam Mai, Paul Ruth, Nanette Ruth, Alberta Diaz, Taryn Norton, Floyd Hollenback, Anton Herling, Kenneth Thomason, Erna Thomason, Fred Johnson, Vernetta Johnson, Daniel Malugani, Marian Malugani, Enoch Duplechan, Charles Holder and Marcia Holder.

County Counsel Anita Grant told Lake County News she had not seen the suit and therefore did not offer comment on it.

Attorney Michael Green of the Santa Rosa law firm Abbey, Weitzenberg, Warren & Emery, who filed the suit on behalf of the property owners, did not return calls seeking comment on the suit.

In March, a landslide developed at the 29-home hilltop subdivision, located off Hill Road.

The hillside began to split and sink, destroying several homes and causing serious damage to others. Eventually, close to half of the residents were displaced through a combination of mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders.

The suit alleges that breaks in the county's public water system saturated and destabilized the ground, leading to the landslide.

In addition to the damaged homes, the suit alleges that the remaining homes and properties have been devalued.

In July, the property owners filed with the county of Lake 45 separate tort claims seeking damages, as Lake County News has reported.

The county's third party liability administrator rejected all of the claims the following month, clearing the way for the group to file the lawsuit.

As the legal case moves forward, the county and the residents are working to make sure the ground – which has stabilized in recent months – doesn't start to move again.

Last month a contractor hired by the county tarped the slide area and demolished two of the badly damaged homes.

Lakeside Heights Homeowners Association President Randall Fitzgerald reported that the association also paid to have winterization work completed at the site, including building a storm drain bypass and tarping all of the damaged Lancaster Road area.

Then, at the end of October, Jagtar Singh's badly damaged home split in half and slipped off the hillside.

Currently Lake County Special Districts is applying for state grant funding to relocate the subdivision's sewer infrastructure.

Special Districts staff told the Board of Supervisors last month that the application is currently under consideration, but the state has not been encouraging as to the county's chances of receiving the requested funds, which total close to $250,000.

While he deferred comment on the suit to Green, Fitzgerald – who has been a fixture at Board of Supervisors meetings during which the subdivision has been discussed – told Lake County News that he can comment on neighborhood-related matters, for which he is maintaining contact with the county.

“If the funding does not come through from the state, and if the winter harms the temporary system we have, resulting in a spill or shutdown, we will all be facing displacement,” said Fitzgerald. “So the disaster scenario isn't finished playing out in Lakeside Heights.”

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – On Tuesday the Clearlake Planning Commission finished preparing its recommendation for the Clearlake City Council regarding design guidelines submitted by the Clearlake Vision Task Force.

The recommendation is expected to go before the Clearlake City Council at its next regular meeting on Nov. 14.

The design guidelines describe allowable uses for future development on the lake and land sides of Lakeshore Drive within the design district, which is designated between Olympic Drive and Old Highway 53.

The commission is recommending the following as permitted uses on the land side of Lakeshore Drive: retail trade and services, personal services such as beauty care; parking lot, public or private; ATM machines, residential development above one or two levels of business; eating establishments including drinking establishments, outdoor eating area and drive through service; boat and water oriented rentals.

Recommendations for conditional use on the land side include indoor recreation, amusement and cultural facilities; portable sidewalk vendors, drinking establishments, retail trade greater than 5,000 square feet; transient lodging, cultural or visitor center and eating establishments with drive through service.

On the lake side, recommended permitted uses include retail trade with complimentary outdoor merchandise displays; bait and tackle shop; portable vendors, eating establishments, boat and water oriented rentals; and cultural or visitor center.

Conditional uses include drinking establishments, transient lodging, indoor recreation, amusement and cultural facility; marinas and other similar facilities; and retail trade and service, without outdoor storage or display, or a combination of separate structures on one lot of record exceeding 3,000 square feet.

City Manager Joan Phillipe said the recommendation to the council will include information pertaining to discussion of eating establishments with drive through services.

Commissioners Al Bernal and Bill Perkins, the latter of whom was not present during the commission's recent workshop addressing details of the recommendation, voted to remove, thereby prohibit, such business within the design district.

During the workshop, public comment was offered suggesting that the prohibition of such a business would be unwise.

Bob Mingori pointed to the high expense typically associated with franchise development, noting the city could retain control of aesthetics through conditional use regulation.

He indicated it would be against the city's best interests to eliminate the possibility of such an opportunity and deny any developer who may have such an interest in the future.

Chairman Alvaro Valencia and Commissioner Cheryl Hutchinson voted to retain the recommendation resulting in a tie vote and retention of the recommendation. Commissioner Carl Webb was absent from Tuesday's meeting.

In other business, the commission approved a mitigated negative declaration of environmental impact on a previously prepared initial study pertaining for 13885 Lakeshore Drive, the location of Clear Lake Cottages and Marina.

The declaration includes 26 issues of mitigation and is available for public review at Clearlake City Hall.

Phillipe said the action was to “clean things up” and move forward with the project.

The commission also granted a request for variance on an “oddly shaped” property at 15225 Highlands Ave.

The variance allows for a setback reduction of 1 foot, 6 inches, totaling 13 feet, 6 inches, down from the required 15 feet. Applicant Frank Metcalf intends to place a singlewide mobile home on the polygon-shaped lot.

Email Denise Rockenstein at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council will hold a special workshop to address issues that have arisen amongst its members in recent months.

The Clearlake City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, to address consensus building among the council members.

Recent conflicts among members of the council led to the scheduling of the workshop.

The public is welcome to attend the workshop, which will be held in council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

Contact Denise Rockenstein at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered several county department heads to bring back a report next month on the potential impacts of a senior mobile home park rent control ordinance.

The board voted 3-2 to direct reports from the County Counsel's Office, Community Development, Economic Development and Social Services be brought back by the Tuesday, Dec. 3 meeting, in order for the board to make a decision by the Dec. 10 deadline.

At that time, the board will consider its options – including whether to accept the initiative as an ordinance or to place it before county voters next June.

Supervisor Anthony Farrington and Denise Rushing, however, voted against ordering the reports, concluding that the additional information was unlikely to change their minds about putting it on the county ballot.

The group “Save Our Seniors” collected more than 2,500 valid signatures from county voters to qualify the measure for the June 2014 ballot, as Lake County News has reported.

The initiative defines a senior mobile home park as one where 80 percent of the homes have at least one person over age 55; rolls back rents to Jan. 1, 2012; and requires that rent hikes be based on the percent of Social Security benefit increases.

A similar initiative will be decided in Lakeport's next municipal election in November 2014.

Board members on Tuesday voiced concerns about legal challenges, which park owners already have hinted are on the horizon.

“Litigation is always a possibility with these things,” said County Counsel Anita Grant, who added that she needed time to analyze the document and make recommendations on the board's options.

The review, she added, is “more to inform your board as to whether the ordinance as presented is legally sufficient.”

One of the initiative's proponents, Nelson Strasser, urged the board to let the voters decide. He said 100 communities across California have adopted rent control for mobile home parks.

He said park owners are continuing to raise rents and squeeze seniors. “We're going to continue to get poorer and poorer if we don't have some kind of rent control ordinance inhibiting this curve.”

Mary Ann McQueen, who along with husband Jerry owns Northport Trailer Resort outside of Lakeport, said the Lakeport city attorney had identified legal issues with the city's initiative, yet the council chose to put it on the ballot. She encouraged the supervisors to neither put the initiative on the ballot nor accept it.

McQueen said park owners have indicated a willingness to work on long-term leases with tenants. Such a lease was created in a county process several years ago in which McQueen took part.

However, Save Ours Seniors members Heather Powers said that lease does nothing for homeowners, and protects park owners only.

Powers suggested that, with Lake County's large retiree population, senior mobile home rent control will benefit economic development and growth.

Doug Johnson of the Western Manufactured Home Community Association, referring to legal advice given to the Lakeport City Council by its attorney, said there is the option of not putting the initiative on the ballot based on the belief that it's unconstitutional.

Johnson said there are many problems with the initiative, but the main issue is there is no mechanism for park owners to seek a fair rate of return.

Farrington supported simply turning the matter over to voters and, ultimately, letting the courts decide if the initiative is constitutional or not.

Supervisor Rob Brown moved to seek the reports from the county departments, with Supervisor Jim Comstock seconding. Board Chair Jeff Smith joined them in voting for the reports, with Farrington and Rushing voting no.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – During a brief Tuesday evening meeting, the Lakeport City Council approved a fee schedule to allow for appeals of an administrative citation process instituted earlier this year.

Administrative citations, approved under a February ordinance that established regulations for the process, allow for the city to pursue compliance in cases involving code enforcement and other situations involving municipal code violations, and also to hold individuals to the terms of project conditions agreements with the city.

The city also intends to use the process to ensure compliance with the medical marijuana cultivation ordinance the council passed in June. In that case, the process – meant to be complaint-driven – calls for noncomplying grows to be infractions that garner citations.

Planning Services Manager Andrew Britton presented to the council a fee schedule resolution proposing a $200 fee for appeal applications.

The total cost of the process for the city is estimated to be around $488 per case, which covers several hours of cumulative staff time as well as the costs for an independent hearing officer, according to Britton.

However, city staff didn't believe charging appeals applicants that much was fair, so instead suggested a $200 fee to recover “a substantial portion” of the costs, Britton said. The proposed fee schedule also included a cost of living increase.

Councilman Martin Scheel asked if the city would open itself up to potential litigation if someone couldn't pay the $200 fee.

“That gets to the due process requirements that we have to fulfill when we're doing this,” said interim City Attorney David Ruderman.

If someone can prove they are indigent, the city may have to provide a waiver, said Ruderman. But he said in relation to potential fines, $200 is not a large amount.

City resident Kim Beall asked if someone was fined, appealed and won, would they get their $200 appeal application fee back.

Mayor Tom Engstrom said it was a good question, and Ruderman replied there is a provision in the ordinance for recouping fees.

“It seems only fair,” said Engstrom. “If you're not guilty, you get your money back.”

And, Ruderman added, if the individual is found liable, the city can recoup its costs.

To date, Britton noted, “We have not issued a single administrative citation.”

He said the city continues to pursue code enforcement cases by contacting and working with people before it gets to the point of a citation.

“Our goal is to seek voluntary compliance,” Britton said.

Councilman Kenny Parlet said implementing the schedule for the appeals process shows the city is trying to do the right thing. He added that the $200 appeal application fee is “more than fair,” and complimented city staff for work on the schedule.

Council member Stacey Mattina moved to adopt the fee schedule resolution, with Scheel seconding. The vote was 5-0.

In other council action, the council honored the local AmeriCorps chapter for its efforts on “Make a Difference Day,” held Saturday, Oct. 26.

No one was present from AmeriCorps to accept the proclamation. However, Engstrom took the time to explain the group's efforts, which included removing graffiti and painting the bathrooms at the Fifth Street boat launch.

AmeriCorps also partnered with Lake County CAN! to collect food for local food pantries. Altogether they gathered more than 2,300 food items, Engstrom said.

The council also met in closed session to discuss litigation and labor negotiations. Staff was given direction but no formal action was taken, according to Engstrom's report.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – This week the Clearlake Planning Commission will consider extending a use permit for a resort expansion and continue to refine design guidelines for the Lakeshore Drive corridor.

The commission will meet beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

The meeting will include a public hearing on an application for a mitigated negative declaration and a use permit extension submitted by Samir Tuma of Kila Clearlake LLC Associates, which owns Clear Lake Cottages and Marina at 13885 Lakeshore Drive.

The use permit, which the commission approved in 2008, allows for the construction of 33 housing units and one storage unit, the report for the meeting explains.

Kila Clearlake LLC Associates, which acquired the property in 2010, sought a four-year extension of the project's rights that same year, but due to city staff turnover no action was taken, according to city documents.

In other business, the commissioners will review a draft ordinance setting forth design guidelines for the Lakeshore Drive Corridor Design District.

The commission is working on coming up with final recommendations for the corridor to send to the Clearlake City Council.

Last month, the council extended a temporary moratorium on construction projects and major remodels on Lakeside Drive between Olympic Drive and Old Highway 53 – a moratorium first implemented over the summer – while the design guidelines are worked out.

Also on Tuesday, the commission will consider Frank Metcalf's application for a variance to allow a reduction of the minimum width of a singlewide mobile home from the required 15 feet to 13 feet 6 inches on a polygon-shaped parcel at 15225 Highlands Ave.

The commission's members include Chairperson Alvaro Valencia, Vice Chairman Bill Perkins, and commissioners Al Bernal, Carl Webb and Cheryl Hutchinson.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

110513 Clear Lake Cottages and Marina use permit and MND

110513 Clearlake Planning Commission - Metcalf variance