LAKE COUNTY – In the coming weeks, Mendocino College officials are expected to make a decision about where to locate a multimillion-dollar new center for Lake County classes, and as they prepare to decide community leaders in both Kelseyville and Lakeport are stepping up efforts to land the project.
Under the auspices of Measure W, a facilities bond approved by voters in 2006, the college district plans to spend $7.5 million to build a new Lake Center. The current center is located in a leased facility at 1005 Parallel Drive.
The college has spent more than two years searching for the right site, originally pursuing a 31-acre property at 2565 Parallel Drive in Lakeport.
But that deal fell through, and in June the college entered escrow on a 14-acre vineyard located at 3360 Merritt Road and owned by Greg Hanson, as Lake County News has reported.
A well-organized group of Kelseyville residents formed a committee to support the college locating there. They said they want to see the center come to Kelseyville, where they envision a college that will be embraced and supported by the community.
But Lakeport officials, who had worked hard to keep the college's Lake Center in Lakeport, also are stepping up their lobbying efforts. Over the summer the site at 2565 Parallel Drive was taken over by a bank as the result of a foreclosure, thus opening the door for the college to reconsider it. A group of Lakeport business owners also have joined the effort, arguing that the city has the best site to offer.
Mendocino College Superintendent and President Kathy Lehner said the board must make a decision about where to locate the new Lake Center within the next month.
To help arrive at a final choice, the district's board of trustees will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20, during which they will travel to the Merritt Road and Parallel Drive sites.
Lehner said they'll meet at 2:30 p.m. at Merritt Road, where they'll view the property, hear a staff report and take 10 minutes of public comment before moving on to Parallel Drive at 3:15 p.m. where they'll repeat the process.
The meeting then will continue at the current Lake Center at 4 p.m.
Lehner said the decision won't be made when the board goes into a closed session later in the Tuesday meeting.
“We're not there yet,” she said.
But they are getting closer, and that's the impetus for a planned discussion at Tuesday's Lakeport City Council meeting, when Redevelopment Director Richard Knoll will ask the council to approve a resolution to support the Parallel Drive site and explore incentives for convincing the college to locate there.
Lehner said they continue to get information from both sides.
“It's always nice to be wanted, and they both seem to want us,” she said.
Communities chase dream of landing the college
In 2007, the college first made its interest known in the 31-acre property on Parallel Drive.
The property was then owned by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based developer Tom Adamson, who had acquired it in 2005, according to assessor's records. He also owned an adjoining 90-acre site.
The properties made up the bulk of the 157-acre area along Parallel Drive that the city completed annexing in 2008. City officials at one time referred to the project as the “Adamson annex.”
Adamson had proposed to build a 130-lot subdivision on the land at one point, which had been the site of a vineyard. However, the land caught the college's interests and talks began after Lehner sent Adamson a letter on July 9, 2007, expressing interest.
But earlier this year, the Adamson property was off the table after he and the college couldn't agree on a price.
The property's appraised value came in at $1.53 million – about $300,000 above the assessed value listed in county records. Adamson had wanted $2.9 million, Mike Adams, the college's director of facility services, told Lake County in a previous interview.
With the college unable and unwilling to pay almost twice the appraised value, they began looking at several other sites and came across Hanson's property, now planted with Sauvignon Blanc grapes.
On June 3 the college and Hanson entered into escrow for the land, the asking price for which is $770,000.
The decision had disappointed Lakeport officials like Knoll, who had supported keeping the college in Lakeport.
Meanwhile, the Committee for Mendocino College Lake Center in Kelseyville – composed of well-connected and enthusiastic Kelseyville residents and Merritt Road location supporters – was gaining steam.
The group began lobbying the college, attending two of its board of trustee meetings to date.
They created a Web site – http://mclc-kel.info/default.aspx – which has information on the community, a concept study, site map and even a petition which so far has more than 700 signatures, according to organizers. They're also appearing at the Saturday morning farmers markets in Kelseyville for the rest of the month, where people can sign the petition in person.
A steering committee for the group has been meeting weekly since August to discuss how to push the effort forward. Members include Greg Hanson, Peter Windrem, Gary Olson, Wally Holbrook, Mike De Gregorio, Dr. Kirk Andrus, Trena Pauly, Greig Olson, Myron Holdenried, Wilda Shock, Diane Henderson, and Robert and Annette Higday.
“The interest level of the community here is going to make this work,” said Holbrook.
They have high hopes for the proposed campus and what it can offer the community and its students. “We would like to encourage the trustees to expand programs there that would augment the agricultural community,” said Gary Olson.
They also are working on a plan that would encourage students to stay in the community by guaranteeing tuition and books to every Kelseyville graduate who attends Mendocino College.
Escrow on the Merritt Road property must be completed by the end of 2010, after an environmental impact report is completed and public meetings are held, said Windrem.
Changing circumstances in Lakeport
In August there was another important twist to the story.
Adamson lost both the 90-acre and 31-acre sites to foreclosure, according to county records.
The 31-acre site appeared to have been in distress for some time before it was purchased for $1.6 million in an August trustee sale by Goldwater Bank.
Knoll confirmed that Goldwater Bank representatives approached the college about purchasing the property, and city officials also followed up to encourage the college to reconsider the site.
In early September Knoll, interim City Manager Kevin Burke and Lakeport Community Development Director Mark Brannigan went to the board of trustees meeting in Ukiah to speak to the board during the meeting's public comment interval. Also there were representatives of the Kelseyville group, along with Supervisor Rob Brown, who spoke in favor of locating the campus in Kelseyville.
Knoll said he felt the Lakeport presentation was well received.
He said he's focusing on promoting the Lakeport site, not getting into a “Kelseyville versus Lakeport situation.”
“The Lakeport site is the first site that was chosen by the college,” he said. “They obviously liked what they saw there.”
He said the city is working on a way to provide water service to the site that will be cost-effective. Other than that, he said the land has the infrastructure needed for development, is allowed under the city's recently adopted general plan and an environmental review has been completed on the land.
Meanwhile, last month, the Kelseyville steering committee met with Victoria Brandon, chair of the Sierra Club Lake Group, to address the club's concerns about the project.
Brandon told Lake County News that the local Sierra Club chapter doesn't necessarily prefer a Lakeport location over one in Kelseyville.
While they support the college's proposal to build a permanent campus here – which she called “a move that will bring immeasurable benefits to Lake County” – they're concerned about the Merritt Road site that center on it being prime agricultural land that's currently in production and outside of the Kelseyville Community Growth Boundaries.
“We also doubt the appropriateness of such a rural location – far from bookstores, cafes and entertainment, poorly served by bus lines and bike lanes – as a community college site,” she said.
Brandon said the group is encouraging the college to schedule a public meeting where everyone's questions and concerns can be voiced. “This decision is of vital importance to all of Lake County, and all of Lake County has right to take part in finding the best solution,” she said.
They're also circulating a petition, which can be found online at www.redwood.sierraclub.org/lake/index.html or at Watershed Books in downtown Lakeport, encouraging the college to reconsider the Parallel Drive site.
Last week, the Lakeport Main Street Association also began circulating a petition seeking signatures in support of keeping the college in Lakeport.
Earlier this summer, Lake County Farm Bureau Executive Director Chuck March noted concerns about the site being located on agricultural land. However, Diane Henderson, a steering committee member who also sits on the Farm Bureau's Board of Directors, said the group hasn't taken a stance on the project.
Two supervisors, two perspectives
Infrastructure and the fact that money already has been spent on an environmental review are among th reasons why Supervisor Anthony Farrington supports locating the center on Parallel Drive.
Farrington – who himself attended Mendocino College, and supports the vision for the new campus – said both proposed sites are within his district, “which puts me in a unique situation.”
However, he said he can't support the Merritt Road site.
For him, the most compelling reason not to support it is a promise he said he made in 2003, when the Board of Supervisors decided to support Kelseyville Lumber's plans for its new super center on Merritt Road on land that, at the time, was zoned agriculture. The proposed college campus location would be across the street from the new Kelseyville Lumber.
Farrington said he promised the community that he wouldn't support leapfrog development on the other side of Merritt Road, across from Kelseyville Lumber's site. “I don't want to break that promise.”
Farrington also is concerned about converting agricultural land for development, and points to more than $80,000 already spent to study the Parallel Drive site.
The college doesn't have to follow zoning law, and while the Board of Supervisors – in its capacity as the Board of Directors for the Kelseyville water and sewer system – could weigh in on the project, Farrington said the Merritt Road property could hit a wall at the Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO), which would have to approve the project.
“I believe that the college might have a huge hurdle to overcome going through LAFCO,” he said.
He said the college will have to make a strong argument for getting LAFCO to agree to extend water and sewer services to the site.
Farrington said he met one-on-one with Lehner in Ukiah to share his concerns.
On the other side of the issue is Brown, Farrington's colleague on the Board of Supervisors.
Brown said he believes that Kelseyville has more to offer a college campus than any other community around the lake.
With a downtown just a short walk away, the location would be beneficial both for students and Kelseyville's downtown businesses, he said.
The Lakeport site is only close to the “Hamburger Hill” area of Lakeport in one direction and the city's sewer ponds in the other, he said.
As it is, Lakeport already has many opportunities, said Brown.
He said he didn't think the Kelseyville community would allow anything besides agriculture or the campus to go on the Merritt Road site.
Brown said he finds it interesting that there's concern about taking part of the Merritt Road property out of agricultural production – a concept study shows that much of the vineyard will be left in place – when there was no outcry against taking the Parallel Road site out of ag production.
No matter which property they choose, Lehner said the college has a long process ahead before they can open their new campus.
“We might move in some modular buildings to start us sooner,” she said. “We would like to get out of our leased facilities as soon as we can.”
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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