LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – “The Law Show” on KPFZ will host a discussion this week about the recently settled Sierra Club Lake Group lawsuit against the city of Clearlake on Saturday, May 21.

The show airs from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on 88.1 FM.

The show's guest will be Victoria Brandon, spokesperson for the local Sierra Club. They will discuss the settlement and the status of the airport development as it again begins to move forward.

Last week it was announced that the lawsuit that halted the city of Clearlake’s plans to sell its old airport property to a developer was settled.

The suit, filed by the local chapter of the Sierra Club, demanded only that the city require the developer to conduct an environmental impact report (EIR) prior to proceeding with the project.

The previous city manager and a majority of council members had decided that no EIR was necessary and issued instead a “mitigated negative declaration” which would have allowed to developer to purchase the city’s airport property and proceed to develop a “regional shopping center” without further study of the potential impacts.

The city’s redevelopment agency also had announced its intention to spend $7 million in taxpayer redevelopment funds to develop infrastructure for the project, a move which also stirred great controversy amongst many local merchants while those supporting the project seemed to favor the idea.

Last November’s Clearlake City Council race turned out to be a contest between candidates who favored the airport development and others who opposed it. When it was over Jeri Spittler and Joey Luiz, two critics of the airport project, had won by a significant margin. Two days after the election, City Administrator Dale Neiman, a moving force behind the regional shopping center idea, resigned.

Since that time the new council and interim city manager had been negotiating a settlement of the suit.

When the announcement came last week that the city had agreed to require an EIR and the developer had agreed to reimburse the Sierra Club for its legal costs in exchange for the Sierra Club dropping the lawsuit, the almost forgotten controversy was stirred up once again. Letters to the editor in the local news and online bloggers again seemed to divide into two camps about the settlement.

Phone lines will be open; call 707-263-3435.