News
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT – After nearly three hours of discussion by the Local Area Formation Commission Wednesday, a decision on the Parallel Drive annexation was postponed until July, with the commission asking the city for more information.
LAFCO consists of city and county representative and members of the public who decide on issues concerning formation of special districts and municipal boundary issues such as the proposed annexation.
The City of Lakeport asked the commission to approve a proposed annexation of 157 acres along Parallel Drive, as Lake County News reported earlier this week.
But the city's sewer capacity issues posed a concern for commissioners. Specifically, they wanted more information about the city's ability to provide sewer services to the new area, which currently includes 24 dwellings on about 30 parcels, according to Lakeport Community Development Director Richard Knoll.
There's also a 130-lot subdivision Tom Adamson has proposed for the area, said Knoll.
If annexed, about 100 acres of the land would be designated residential, with the rest slated for commercial development, officials explained.
Residential zoning in Lakeport allows as many as seven units per acre, but Knoll said the city's average is four. He said many of the lots in the area already are developed.
Earlier this year, the state placed a cease and desist order on Lakeport because of capacity issues that manifested last year in a treated wastewater runoff from the city's sewer facility. Part of that order included a temporary connection ban to the city's sewer system.
The state has lifted that ban on condition that the city meet certain requirements by November. Meeting those requirements also would give the city 77 residential unit equivalents – or 77 residential hookups to the sewer system.
Lakeport City Manager Jerry Gillham told LAFCO commissioners that he believes they have much more capacity even than that to cover the new annexation area and future development.
Since the connection ban, Lakeport officials have argued that the state water quality control board's calculations of the city's sewer capacity were faulty.
Annexation would give the city impact and development fees – to the tune of as much as $14,000 per residence that hooks up to the system, Gillham and Knoll explained.
But LAFCO Commissioner Denise Rushing said she was uncomfortable with Gillham's argument that the state's numbers aren't to be trusted.
Rushing said she wanted more information about studies of the sewer facility capacity issue the city has conducted.
Gillham pushed for annexation on the basis of contingencies – that the request would be approved based on the city fulfilling certain requirements by a certain date.
LAFCO Executive Officer John Benoit said the commission's five-page resolution on the annexation could be altered to include such requirements.
The resolution includes a condition that the annexation could only go forward if the city did, in fact, receive the 77 residential unit equivalents from the state.
Rushing, however, questioned if the city could meet the annexation area's needs. “I think LAFCO's job is to make sure the plan matches the annexation.”
Commissioner Ed Robey asked Benoit if it was typical for LAFCO to make a decision based on a contingency, because he didn't believe he had encountered that before. Benoit admitted the situation was “somewhat unique.”
Robey said he wasn't opposed to the project, but wanted a commission decision to conform with policy.
Gillham said he was concerned that holding the annexation too long would hamper the city's ability to get financing for a sewer facility expansion project, but he didn't object to the one-month delay.
Rushing moved to have the decision postponed so the city could provide more information on how many residential hookups will be added through the city's expansion projects, as well as a report on the current flows into the city sewer system versus the system's maximum flow capacity.
Alternate commissioner Jeff Smith said he also wanted the city to provide updates on what development projects it has approved so the commission can know how many hookups are available to the annexation area.
“We need those exact figures before we can make an informed decision,” said Smith. “That's the bottom line.”
Gillham said after the meeting that the one-month postponement shouldn't hamper their funding application to US Department of Agriculture Rural Development, which the city hopes will help fund its sewer expansion.
“If it had been much longer than that I would have been a little squeamish,” Gillham said.
LAFCO will return to City Hall at 9:30 a.m. July 18 to continue its consideration of the Parallel Drive annexation.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
{mos_sb_discuss:2}
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
CLEARLAKE OAKS – Authorities reported a vehicle went into the lake along the Northshore lake Monday.
The California Highway Patrol incident logs included a report at 11:21 p.m. of a red 1991 Mazda Protege going off Highway 20 and into Clear Lake, near Clearlake Oaks.
A female caller – possibly the driver – advised CHP that the car was traveling from Lakeport toward the south end of the lake when it went off the road between Clearlake Oaks and Lucerne, just east of Pepperwood Cove.
The logs reported the car was submerging, but all parties were out of the car.
An ambulance was initially dispatched, although the woman who reported the accident said she only had some cuts and bruises.
No further information, including how many other people may have been involved in the incident, was available Monday night.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
{mos_sb_discuss:2}
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT – This week, a local commission will consider adding 150 acres to the City of Lakeport's boundaries.
The Local Area Formation Commission – or LAFCO – will consider the Parallel Drive annexation issue at a meeting at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 6, at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
Lakeport Community Development Director Richard Knoll said the 150-acre area runs along the west side of Parallel Drive, extending from the current city limits – which is the southern boundary of a vacant orchard property to the south of KFC, the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise – down to the Highway 175/Parallel Drive intersection.
The area is within the city's sphere of influence, or urban growth boundaries, Knoll said. It includes a population of 50 people and about 24 dwellings, he added.
The annexation process started two years ago, said Knoll. At that time, the city was considering a much larger area, about double the size of that currently proposed.
After surveying area residents and conducting a public workshop, Knoll said a number of people voiced opposition to joining the city, and the area under consideration was reduced to 150 acres.
What the annexation would mean for property owners and residents, said Knoll, is different services. Lakeport Police would take over policing the area from the sheriff's office. Residents would be required to participate in the city's universal – or mandatory – garbage service and would have to observe a permanent burn ban.
Property taxes would not change, Knoll said; neither would fire services, which the Lakeport Fire Protection District would continue to cover.
Lakeport also would offer the area sewer and water services, an issue which delayed the annexation's consideration.
The Parallel Drive annexation had been scheduled for consideration by LAFCO earlier this year, said Knoll. But when the state hit the city with a cease and desist order on hookups to the city sewer system in January, due to a capacity issue that manifested itself last year, Lakeport officials decided to postpone the annexation discussion.
“We put it on hold because the cease and desist order had the connection ban,” said Knoll. “We felt like we needed to sort out the implications for that with respect to annexation.”
Knoll continued, “The city really does need to address and resolve this sewer capacity issue,” both for the purposes of expansion and in-fill development. The city is doing that through, among other things, some proposed expansion projects, Knoll said.
LAFCO's staff is recommending the annexation's approval, said Knoll.
He said it's the city's position that it makes sense for the Parallel Drive area to be within Lakeport's city limits because of its close proximity to the city and the fact that it's already equipped for growth through city services.
The city's draft General Plan, which will be the subject of a June 19 City Council public hearing, calls for about 1,000 more acres to be annexed over the life of the plan, said Knoll, which the document itself says is a 20-year timeframe.
Some of the areas slated for eventual annexation are about 400 acres of the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District, which the council has been looking at for a golf and residential subdivision development; and 500 to 600 acres of potential that includes an area near the city limits along Scotts Valley Road, the South Main Street corridor and an area west of the Parallel Drive annexation, Knoll said.
The Parallel Drive annexation isn't a given, said Knoll.
For starters, LAFCO could choose to turn it down. If LAFCO does approve it, there are still several steps required to finish the process, Knoll explained.
There has been opposition to the plan by area residents, he added. If enough opposition exists from property owners, the issue could go out to an election of voters and landowners in the area, which could prevent the area from joining the city.
“It's an interesting process,” he said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
{mos_sb_discuss:2}
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
MIDDLETOWN – Starr Hill was looking forward to the future.
In May of 2005, the 46-year-old mother of two, who also was a youthful grandmother, had recently quit smoking to get her scuba diving certification.
She and husband, Curtis, had purchased a cave on the big island of Hawaii and were building a tourism business there.
Starr Hill's younger daughter, April Robinson, said her mother liked to show pictures to friends and family of the work she and Curtis were doing for the business, which included taking people on tours of the Hawaiian cave.
On May 17, 2005, Starr Hill and Robinson spoke on the phone, as they did on an almost daily basis, Robinson said. They had last seen each other the week before.
They were due to speak again May 19, said Robinson, but Hill never called.
No one has reported seeing or speaking with Hill since that week two years ago, and the search for answers about what happened to her has turned up no substantial clues.
At this point, said Robinson, it's a cold case.
Searching for Starr
After three days of hearing nothing from her mother, Robinson called Starr's husband, Curtis. Robinson said Hill told her they had fought on May 18 and Starr had walked away from their home on Western Mine Road.
In an interview with this reporter in May of 2005, Curtis Hill stated he and his wife had argued and she walked away from their 37-acre property during a rainstorm, wearing blue jeans, a green sweater and a black leather jacket. She didn't take her purse or any other personal effects.
Curtis Hill said then that Starr had been known to leave for weeks at a time following heated arguments during their five-year marriage.
He later reported that he came home from his job as a firefighter in Contra Costa County the day after his wife left to find an angry note from her. He said he also found duffel bags, her purse and makeup bag missing.
Robinson said she never saw that note that Curtis Hill said he found from Starr.
Curtis Hill did not return several phone calls from Lake County News to his Middletown home seeking comment for this story.
A friend of the couple later stated they saw Starr Hill on the same day that she disappeared walking in the rain along the highway toward near Twin Pine Casino. Robinson discounted the story, saying her mother would likely have stopped into the casino to call a friend or family member for a ride and so someone would have heard from her.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office searched the Hill property on May 24, 2005, with the help of K-Corps and Search and Rescue teams. No signs of Starr Hill were found.
Her grandson's birthday came and went the week following her disappearance, and still no signs of Starr, who Robinson said didn't miss family events.
In the months that followed, Robinson, her stepfather and his family reported handing out fliers and traveling to areas of Mendocino and Napa counties where Starr had liked to visit. Meanwhile, sheriff's investigators found no signs of activity on Starr Hill's cell phone or credit card accounts.
In August 2005, Sheriff Rod Mitchell held a press conference to help publicize the missing woman's case, and to ask the public for leads.
By the time of Mitchell's press conference, Curtis Hill had stopped cooperating with the Lake County Sheriff's Office, which Mitchell called attention to, saying Hill's behavior was “suspect.”
Hitting a dead end
The only physical evidence of Hill that the investigation turned up was her cell phone, which was found by a vineyard worker alongside Highway 29 in Lower Lake in October 2005.
The last number that showed up on the phone belonged to Starr Hill's mother, Leona Schneider, now 85, who lives in Auburn.
But Mitchell reported that the cell phone find ended up yielding no forensic evidence and few clues, other than it was last used before Starr Hill's disappearance.
In December of 2005, Robinson volunteered to take a voice stress analyzer test, answering questions about her mother's disappearance. She passed. Her stepfather, however, refused to take the same test, according to Mitchell.
Robinson said she regularly speaks with sheriff's investigator Det. Corey Paulich, but that the last time anything of significance in the case occurred was last May, when authorities conducted another search of the Western Mine Road property.
That effort had been postponed for eight months while they waited for Shirley Hammond, a noted cadaver dog handler and author of books on training disaster search dogs, to become available to take part in the search, said Robinson.
Hammond had been key in the search for Tracy Lyons, a man who went missing in the Clearlake Oaks area in 1998. Hammond's dog, Twist, reportedly found traces of Lyons' remains, and Hammond later testified in the trial of Nathan Davison, who was convicted in 2005 of Lyons' murder.
However, Hammond's search of the Hill property yielded no clues, said Robinson.
The Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation last year offered a $5,000 reward for information about Hill, thanks to Robinson's efforts to get attention for her mother's case.
But the rewards are only offered for six months, said Robinson, and the reward money was withdrawn in August 2006 so it could be used for another case.
Robinson said she's still in touch with the foundation, and that they continue to circulate information about Starr Hill's case. She hasn't asked to have the reward reinstated, however.
There are thousands of missing persons around the country, said Robinson, “and families that are going through the same thing we are.”
Hill's DNA was submitted to a national database of missing persons, thanks to Paulich's efforts to get past a Department of Justice backlog, said Robinson. “It took a really long time to get that done,” she said.
The DNA came from a hairbrush Curtis Hill turned over to authorities, along with DNA samples contributed by Starr's brothers and mother.
Tomorrow: The authorities try to piece the case together while the family seeks closure.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
{mos_sb_discuss:2}
How to resolve AdBlock issue?