CLEARLAKE – With millions of dollars in retail sales estimated to be leaving the county on an annual basis, the city of Clearlake's redevelopment agency is beginning the public hearing process for a regional shopping center on the site of the city's former airport.
The plan – which would be anchored by a Lowe's home center, according to the city – is raising the hopes of some and the concerns of others, particularly some local business owners, as well as highlighting divisions between local leaders who differ in their visions for building the community's economy.
The Clearlake Airport Redevelopment Project is located between Highway 53, Old Highway 53, Airport Road and 18th Avenue, as Lake County News has reported.
The 15-acre site's development plan would have a total commercial square footage of 154,179. That includes a Lowe's home improvement store with 111,348 square feet in a single-story building, plus a 25,568 square foot outdoor garden center, and an additional 16,263 on four other retail pads that currently are being offered. Another roughly 1,000 square feet in that estimate is not specified.
The plan calls for using $6 million in Clearlake Redevelopment Agency bond funding to make infrastructure improvements to the area – including paying out half of the $5 million that's estimated to be needed to improve the city's sewer system.
Clearlake City Administrator Dale Neiman said the site's infrastructure problems count as blight, which allows the city to use redevelopment to assist the development.
Neiman said ground must break on the project by February 2011.
Much of the differing opinion the plan is eliciting centers around corporate chains and “big box” stores versus locally owned and operated business, and concerns that the former will wipe out the latter.
It's also giving rise to a larger community discussion about potential benefits to residents – more shopping opportunities and jobs at at time when the county's unemployment is above 16 percent – balanced against impacts on current businesses, including potential job losses and closures.
Another concern – city officials want to see move forward without a full environmental impact report, a decision ultimately up to the Clearlake City Council, which critics say will prevent the project from being studied as fully as necessary.
A mitigated negative declaration document has been issued, with the comment period lasting from Dec. 1 through Dec. 31. The documents are available at the Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
The extent of the project's environmental study will be decided at a special joint meeting of the council and redevelopment agency at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 7, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall.
Neiman, who has led the city's negotiations on the project, said significant retail sales are leaving the county and the “regional shopping center” plan is an attempt to keep that money here in Lake County.
“There would be a substantial increase in retail sales for the city general fund,” he said.
In crafting the proposed property sale and development plan, Neiman said he worked with Jerry Keyser, founder and board chair of Keyser Marston Associates – who advised the city on the financial aspects of the proposed sale – and special legal counsel Iris Yang of the firm McDonough, Holland & Allen. In addition to advising numerous cities on redevelopment project, Yang co-authored a book about redevelopment in California. Both Keyser and Yang have extensive experience, he added.
An analysis of Lake County's potential taxable retail, prepared for the county of Lake by California State University, Chico's Center for Economic Development, estimated there was a net taxable sales “leakage” out of Lake County that totaled $121 million in 2005, due to people spending money outside of the county's boundaries.
The report noted, “a significant potential exists for retail expansion within Lake County.”
For 2005, the category of “lumber, hardware and farm equipment” had taxable retails sales of $53.8 million, according to the report – making it second only to “general merchandise,” with $74 million in sales, for the category with the most spending. The report listed 29 categories with $390 million in total retail sales locally.
City, county officials want to protect their communities
Clearlake Vice Mayor Joyce Overton said Wednesday that the Clearlake City Council is just now starting to get a full picture of the project. “We're still waiting for everything to come forward, too.”
Overton said she's “kinda torn” about the plan.
“I really want to fix up our downtown,” she said.
Since the airport plan has been talked about in the community, Overton said she's been hearing from businesses along Lakeshore Drive, who want that area improved.
Overton said Neiman has told the council that the shopping center plan will bring in tax increment revenue that will help the city fix Lakeshore Drive.
“I'm definitely going to be very careful with this one,” she said.
Overton questioned whether or not Lowe's actually will end up building in Clearlake. The company wouldn't confirm that it was coming when contacted this week by Lake County News, although Neiman said they had confirmed they would be the anchor tenant.
“I'm looking at why would Lowe's come in if Home Depot wouldn't?” Overton said, referring to Home Depot pulling out of the plan last year.
With the center likely to have far-reaching impacts around the lake, county officials are concerned that they weren't included in the discussions.
One of them, Supervisor Rob Brown, who heard about the plan this week, said he was disappointed in what he perceived as the city's attempt to intentionally keep the plans from the county.
“I think it was a devious attempt to keep the county out of the process,” he said. “In any of our meetings with them, we've specifically asked about this and they've avoided the conversation with the county at all levels.”
He said he plans to protest the plan in writing, although the board itself – not scheduled to meet again this month – likely won't be able take a unified action before the public comment period on the current environmental document closes. Brown said he also spoke to Board Chair Denise Rushing, who he said also expressed concern.
Brown's colleague on the board, Supervisor Jeff Smith, himself a former Clearlake City Council member, took a more measured approach toward the plan, which he said he wants to learn more about in the weeks ahead.
Smith said he understands why the negotiations had to be kept secret. “We have to do the same thing through the county,” he said, adding that he believed the city released the information as soon as it could.
He said he's tried to stay out of the project because he didn't want to step on current council members' toes or interfere with what he believes has been a good working relationship that he's enjoyed with city leadership.
However, Smith noted that he had “mixed emotions” about the plan.
When the city purchased the airport property in 1996 from the county, it was purchased for the purpose of locating a shopping center, there, Smith said.
Smith wasn't sure if an EIR should be done, although he said traffic issues needed to be investigated.
The city of Clearlake is financially strapped now, he said, and losing sales tax is adding to everyone's troubles.
He said he feels there are some positives that can come out of the project, including a “win-win” for both the city and county if the sewer system is fixed.
Smith said he hears people saying they want growth, and that they're tired of “going over the hill” for shopping, but the question, he said, is how to balance that with supporting small business.
He recalled when Wal-Mart arrived in the city, which elicited similar concerns.
“We need to grow a little bit more to attract things we need here,” he said.
Smith said he felt the project fits into redevelopment. In fact, it's part of the redevelopment area for that reason, he said.
“Whether Lowe's is the right thing or not, I think a regional shopping center is the right thing,” he said.
Overton said she is aware of the county's concerns. “My concern is that we have to make sure that we can support our community,” she said.
Groups, business owners weigh in on plan
Sierra Club Lake Group Chair Victoria Brandon said she found the city's attempt to do a mitigated negative declaration on a project of this magnitude “unconscionable,” asserting that it will have devastating affects on a number of local businesses and “is guaranteed to deepen the pall of blight hanging over the city of Clearlake.”
Brandon also criticized what she termed “the evident attempt at sneak it through under wraps,” and questioned the use for redevelopment money for purposes that have nothing to do with redevelopment.
Local business owners like Mark Borghesani, whose family opened the 82,000 square foot Kelseyville Lumber home center earlier this year, also are watching the developments.
Borghesani said his concerns extend beyond his own business to others around the lake, and the county's entire economy.
“If a Lowe's ultimately ends up going there, I think it's just an unfortunate thing,” he said.
At one time a member of an effort to keep “big box” stores out of Lake County, Borghesani doesn't see the corporate chains as bringing economic benefit or good jobs, and he's concerned that Clearlake is shopping the plan as a “save-all” solution.
“The perception is out there that this is their save-all, with absolutely no consideration for anybody, any business downtown, the people who live there,” he said.
The sales tax dollars that would come into Clearlake would just be shifted from other places in the county, Borghesani suggested, including Mendo Mill – which has been in the city for decades and contributed to the community – Kelseyville Lumber and possibly some Internet sales. Because Lowe's also sells cabinets and appliances, other small businesses also will be affected.
With the slow economy and increasing competition from the Internet, he said businesses like his are facing mounting challenges. He added that he doesn't feel the community is big enough to support the revenue generating requirements of big boxes.
It took Borghesani four years to get his project through. It wasn't required to do an environmental impact report, but was approved on a mitigated negative declaration, according to county Community Development Director Rick Coel.
At roughly half the size of the proposed Clearlake project, it faced issues regarding its location in an agriculturally zoned area, buffers and project design addressed those concerns. However, Coel said it accommodated an existing business that could not expand in its downtown location, and there weren't significant traffic or potential blight concerns, and adequate infrastructure already was available.
When the project was going through approvals in 2005, it also didn't have to address greenhouse gas issues, which projects now must do, said Coel.
Borghesani wondered what will happen to the rest of the city.
“Clearlake is going to be what you see from the freeway,” he said.
The Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce has yet to take a position on the project. The chamber's board invited the project developer, KK Raphel Properties of Danville, to a Wednesday night discussion about the plan.
The Lake County Chamber of Commerce's board also hasn't formally taken up the matter, but Chief Executive Officer Melissa Fulton said she intends to discuss it with them.
“I have concerns about the impacts on all local businesses,” she said.
Fulton also said she was surprised about the short public comment period on the plan's current environmental documents. Public comment must be submitted by Dec. 31. She suggested more public outreach may have been appropriate.
In her job Fulton often addresses perceptions about local businesses, particularly pricing and availability of products.
“We're working very, very hard to educate our residents as to what it means to the community when they take that drive and spend those dollars outside of Lake County,” she said.
That's the founding principle of the chamber's “Shop, Stay and Play” Web site, www.shopstayplay.com/, which offers information about what services are available locally.
When calculating in the cost of drive time, gas and other expenses to travel out of county, Fulton said it actually pencils out in favor of shopping locally.
She said the chamber also is working with retailers on how to transform those perceptions by making competitive offers and doing more outreach about their services. “They have taken an active part in changing that perception,” she said.
Fulton said it's critical that the community comes together to support each other. Without local businesses, she said nonprofits, youth groups, area seniors centers and other worthy causes would lose important support.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .
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