- Elizabeth Larson
Supervisors to continue Cristallago EIR discussion to Feb. 9
Citing an enormous amount of testimony and information she was still disseminating, District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing asked for additional time to make a decision on the environmental impact report for the project, which she called “a little city.”
Although other board members intimated they were prepared to vote, they agreed to take the item under submission and continue deliberations on the EIR at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9. They will discuss the project's merits at a separate discussion tentatively scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 2.
The Sierra Club Lake Group appealed the Lake County Planning Commission's Oct. 22 decision to certify the environmental impact report (EIR). That appeal took up the entire hearing Tuesday because the board must make a decision on that item before moving on to consider the Cristallago project as a whole.
About three hours of comments and explanations from county staff, the Sierra Club and the Cristallago Development Corp. team took place before the hearing was opened to public comment. More than 80 people were in the chambers for much of the discussion.
Emily Minton, the project's principal planner, explained that Cristallago would be built in phases.
Developers Mark Mitchell and Matt Boeger propose to build 650 houses on lots ranging in size from 4,000 square feet up to an acre. The development will have 325 resort units – including timeshares, condominiums with fractional ownership and a 100-room hotel – as well as an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus signature golf course, conference center, spa, internal trail system, three small parks, an equestrian center, a commercial development with a restaurant to seat 75 people and a visitor center.
Community Development Director Rick Coel said the project's EIR was a “program” EIR, which was appropriate because of the 15- to 20-year development plan and the fact that not every phase was entirely developed.
To do a full EIR, each plan phase would have to be fully developed, with no guarantee of approval, and the time and cost of developing such a detailed document “would be excessive” and make future changes difficult, said Coel.
He said the program EIR also offers flexibility to adjust to compliance with future changes in policy. Coel said that's already a reality for this project, considering the state's ongoing changes to greenhouse gas mitigation requirements.
Board Chair Anthony Farrington said that, although they go through EIRs on the board, “This is the first project of this magnitude so there is a learning curve.”
As each phase of the plan moves forward, the developers will have to do additional studies, including further full or focused EIRs, to study the cumulative impacts in all major categories, including traffic and water supply, Coel said.
Sierra Club, developers present sides
Victoria Brandon, speaking on behalf of the Sierra Club Lake Group, said the group hired legal counsel to advise them on their concerns about Cristallago.
“We certainly recognize that in a project of this complexity that it is not possible to address every detail from the beginning,” said Brandon. However, some things need to be defined now rather than later, including drainage and the specifics of the water system.
The project's environmental setting hadn't been properly analyzed, she said, including incomplete biological studies on the area's wetlands and the serpentine soils.
“These are strange landscapes that host remarkable, rare plants,” said Brandon, but studies haven't been conducted at the right time of year to see what plants are there, which makes it difficult to know how to properly mitigate for impacts.
Brandon said the public's comments on the final EIR were handled “dismissively,” and the water supply and impacts of drawing 600 acre feet of water from the lake to irrigate the golf course was never properly analyzed, nor was the impact of the increased traffic on Lakeport.
A principal concern was air quality, which Brandon suggested would be impacted from grading of serpentine soils, which contain asbestos.
With local air quality already approaching critical levels of some pollutants, if those materials become more prevalent, “It's going to have major impacts on all of Lake County,” she said.
Brandon told the board, “We think this has to go back to the drawing board and be reevaluated.”
Even bigger issues were inconsistencies with the general plan and Lakeport Area Plan; Brandon said there were 24 such inconsistencies.
Special District Administrator Mark Dellinger told the board that the Cristallago EIR contains what may be the county's first water supply assessment. He said the document was “excellent.” It was created by an engineer hired by the developers but vetted through a Special Districts engineer.
“As long as the conditions for approval are met, we're fine,” Dellinger said.
The north Lakeport area still has a connection moratorium, but it can be upgraded to handle the hookups, he explained.
“My position is that all future growth be borne by developers, not the district ratepayers,” Farrington said.
Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart said the county could face myriad impacts if it loses its air quality standards attainment, which is why it's important to carefully analyze air quality issues. Newly instituted federal requirements tighten ambient quality standards to the point where Cristallago's anticipated impacts would be close to the cutoff for acceptable levels.
In order to mitigate the impacts, Gearhart said there would need to be an emphasis on alternative energy – such as charging stations for electric vehicles, use of solar and wind power. Other suggested mitigations included shuttle buses and a bus stop at the development.
Supervisor Jim Comstock suggested they were pushing the threshold of acceptable levels whether Cristallago is built or if there is infill building. Gearhart said infill projects are closer to services and more easily mitigated.
“This is a major project, we need to set the standard at least high enough so we have that flexibility on future projects,” Gearhart said.
Asbestos was another point of concern for Gearhart, noting that the impacts of exposure don't show up until between 10 and 40 years.
“There is potential impacts from asbestos to the community at large if things go bad at the project,” he said.
Public Works Director Brent Siemer and Water Resources Engineer Tom Smythe told the board that the EIR's traffic and drainage components, respectively, were sufficient.
Rushing wanted clarification on what the EIR needed to include. County Counsel Anita Grant said the program EIR provides an umbrella under which more specific actions and studies take place.
“This is the initial hurdle,” said Grant, but it's not the end of the board's opportunity to enforce mitigations on the project.
Coel agreed, saying there would be “another bite at the apple” in the future.
Rushing was concerned about being able to require that the project exceed air quality management standards. Grant said they could apply such mitigations at any level, based on her interpretation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Jim Burns, representing the Cristallago Development Corp. team, addressed the concerns voiced by Brandon.
Regarding Brandon's statement about 24 inconsistencies with the county's general plan and Lakeport Area Plan, he said there actually are 32 such inconsistencies, but there are more than 300 consistencies.
He said the visual impacts will be minimal, with the project only visible from the highway for about 20 seconds – what he called a “cell phone view.”
The majority of the site already has been cleared, said Burns. A total of 140 oak trees would be taken down and 2.5 acres would be replaced. Eighty-five acres of oaks will be preserved.
Burns said the project isn't leap frog development, and explained that traffic impacts were overstated by the EIR consultants by 30 percent.
As for the concerns about air quality, Burns said they've created the most complete dust control plan ever put together in California, modeling it after measures taken in El Dorado County and North Carolina.
Summing up his short presentation, Burns said the EIR has identified and responded to all impacts, and that the developers believed Cristallago can stand the test of the development constraints.
Community members address EIR document
During public comment, 15 people – including the developers' attorney, David Nelson of Colusa – spoke about the project. Of those, 11 questioned the EIR's adequacy and four encouraged the board to turn down the appeal.
They included Lakeport City Council member Suzanne Lyons, who felt the full impacts to the city hadn't been explored, and added that the inconsistencies with planning documents bothered her.
“I think there are just too many things of question, and particularly with the air quality,” she said.
She said she felt the problem didn't look good now and that it wouldn't look better down the line. The city of Lakeport already is facing serious issues with water and sewer capacity, she added.
Archaeologist Dr. John Parker said the 860-acre project site hadn't been adequately surveyed for cultural sites, five of which he estimated existed on the land based on a calculation of archaeological site density around the county.
Parker's read of CEQA was that those cultural resources surveys should already have been done in the process, but Grant interpreted the CEQA requirements as having to do with sites already known.
North Lakeport resident Mike Blake called the EIR “a farce.”
“It's a bunch of pretty words and fancy, long sentences designed to confuse,” he said.
He lives near Crystal Lake Estates, which over the last two years has managed to built six homes and 37 driveways, Blake said.
Blake said if the county had required solar to be installed on each unit, he wouldn't be there complaining. “I wish you would just say no” to the plan, Blake said.
Retired District 1 Supervisor Ed Robey raised the issue of people with existing lots around the county being able to hook up to the county's waste disposal pipeline, which takes treated effluent to The Geysers.
Taxpayers have been paying for their part of that system, but Cristallago will take about 1,000 total connections out of it, and while the water plant can be expanded, the pipeline can't be made bigger, said Robey.
Answering Robey, Boeger said they've committed to a tertiary treatment plant, which will allow Cristallago's wastewater to be used for irrigating the golf course rather than going into the pipeline.
North Lakeport resident Norm Ihle focused his comments on concerns about the serpentine soils, and the serious health impacts he sees resulting from building on the site.
“You're on a toxic site, bottom line,” he said, urging them to tighten up standards to protect county residents – particularly children – from suffering harmful health impacts.
Kevin Goodwin, who owns a ranch next to the Cristallago site, also pointed to numerous problems with the EIR.
“Almost without exception, our questions have not been answered,” he said, including the environmental impacts of supplying Cristallago with water.
Clearlake Oaks resident Chuck Lamb said it was necessary to uphold the Sierra Club's appeal.
“This EIR is not quite there and in my opinion needs to go back out to the public and be rescoped,” Lamb said.
“What scares me is this issue of 'conceptual buildout,'” he said, quoting the staff report, which noted much of the project's future shape wasn't totally defined.
Lamb said compliance with the general plan was an “absolute must,” considering all the work that went into it.
Nearby property owners Larry Heine and Melissa Fulton both suggested the project move forward.
“The developer has consistently changed this project since it was first proposed to the county,” which Fulton said they did in response to complaints and concerns from county officials, the Sierra Club and community members.
She said there were plenty of “nimbys” and “cave people” at the meeting. She later explained that “cave” is short for “citizens against virtually everything.”
Nelson admonished the board about what they should be considering, and noted that during such hearings people tend to lose perspective about what's before them.
He said an EIR is an informational document that doesn't include the project's criteria or conditions, but instead seeks to identify significant environmental impacts.
“This process in my opinion, and in the opinion of the proponents, has worked as it's supposed to,” he said.
The law doesn't require the EIR to be exhaustive, only adequate, said Nelson. If they're waiting for it to be perfect or “right,” that will never happen because of disagreements.
Rushing asks for more time
During the board's discussion, Rushing said she needed more time to think through the project's complicated issues.
Some of the EIR's language concerned her, and while the EIR didn't need to be perfect, Rushing noted it does need to be adequate and complete.
“I'm not sure we're there yet,” she said.
Supervisor Rob Brown said he was ready to make a decision, although he was willing to wait to give Rushing more time.
However, he asked, “Would more time make a difference?”
He said the board has to rely on staff, and with the exception of Gearhart, all of the county staff who spoke about the EIR said it was adequate.
Rushing said if Brown was asking her to be honest, she didn't feel she had enough information. Farrington asked what information it was that she didn't feel had been offered.
She replied that the project is asking for an entitlement. “Can you answer the question what we're trading for this?”
“What we're trading with any population growth is a loss of air quality attainment,” Farrington said.
In comparing impacts, Comstock said the 600 undeveloped lots in Hidden Valley Lake will have impacts such as traffic if they were developed.
“You all are zeroing in on one little piece,” said Rushing, saying they can't argue that creating a new “little city” won't have an environmental impact. Comstock said they weren't saying that.
Supervisor Jeff Smith said he also was ready to move forward, but didn't mind waiting.
“This is an item that warrants deep consideration,” Farrington said at the meeting's end.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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