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.

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Comstock
written by tom, January 27, 2010

as usual was half asleep at the board meeting. When he spoke, it was to belittle the air quality management dept. head for suggesting that solar energy could help mitigate poor air quality. He and Rob Brown traded smirks back and forth and even passed funny notes to each other. When Comstock tried to include Farrington in the funny note exchange, Farrington glanced at the note and ingnored it. We need to separate those two boys and put them on opposite ends of the podium. Or better yet, remove them completely from the podium.

We are considering buildng an entire city, minus stores,jobs and other attractants, meaning the new population will be driving their cars multiple miles to buy a loaf of bread or gallon of milk. Or do anything except play golf. This is very outdated mid-20th century planning. Pay attention, guys. This is the biggest development ever faced by this county. It's not just a "subdivision" you're considering.

Thanks Denise
written by solincobb, January 27, 2010

Good of you to delay the proceedings, but it looks like three supervisors are in favor, and two willing to look deeper into it, as it stands right now. Sprawl is in the air people, just what the old school thinks will make them money.

Good Grief Denise
written by sari, January 27, 2010

This has been going on for years. Why are you unable to make a decision?

CAVE People
written by edgewise, January 27, 2010

Yes, indeed -- and I am one of them: Citizens Against Vacuous Egotism. When they can show us how the costs are going to be covered, including costs of mitigation of significant irreversible ecosystem terrain (part of the "recharge" area -- the one that feeds the groundwater supply in Scotts Valley, for example, and Clear Lake itself) by extracting (at great expense for treatment) more contaminated water from the poor old lake and how that will personally impact every tax and rate and assessment payer, I'll buy (or not, depending). Oh, Glory Be! Department heads are eagerly anticipating the endless labor of accommodating all the special conditions called for -- hundreds of studies and permits and contracts and administration and cartoon Board of Supervisors inquiries. The Chamber of Commerce believes that the environmental mitigations, such as the proposed "tertiary treatment" fantasy, outweigh the negative impacts on the City of Lakeport, comments about which were consistently brushed aside in the EIR, DEIR, FEIR and all public hearings including yesterday's. And what was that mental math about the future benefit of removing 600 acre feet per year from the supplemental water delivered to the Geysers for power generation after tertiary is put in, which the developer actually said he would pay "his fair share of" -- which means that everyone who wants their property values to rise will campaign for it, and those of us who seek to keep our dollars to ourselves and prefer local self-governance will have to cough up some mighty big bucks. But, not to worry -- at a cost of a mere $314,000 we have employed a couple of people for three years to make some phone calls and conduct sceance-style "collaboration" meetings required by the proof of performance chapter of their grant -- which we pay for with our federal income taxes. Gee, I wonder who's growing vegetables this year? About half the town, as usual. This is farm country; bad enough the UC Davis school of leaches has begun to refocus on small farmers, and the Marketing Department is trying to turn your actually sustainable but low-$ homestead practices into sideshows, requiring you to sanitize your life to make the tourists happy (but there is no Code Enforcement system that provides for correction of major environmental errors).

I also happily admit to my NIMBY attitude, which has been eagerly cultivated by the Code Enforcement programs, approval of significant construction regulations, water quality volunteerism (CRMPs, Creek Cleanups, Watershed Assessment participation), buying local, driving less, volunteering six days a week -- adding my efforts to the hundreds (if not thousands) of unpaid community service providers to make up for the County's inability to manage its assets under the direction of staffless (and in some cases, brainless) elected officials. I don't want them in my back yard, either, thanks.

Finally, I'd like to introduce a new slur to the lingo, which labels me and my ilk "NOMD" (Not on My Dime.)

We will never know what kind of promises these promoters made to the ruling class, but I'll bet their asses are still wet.

Re: Good Grief Denise
written by Grace OMalley, January 27, 2010

Probably because her mind isn't stuck in the "grow-grow-grow sprawl is good" thinking of some of the other supes. She wants some serious answers to serious questions, not pie in the sky.

How do we the citizens pay for servicing this development?
written by hbhbglenn, January 27, 2010

Lets face it, there is no need for this, there is no one in Lake County who said, gee wouldn't it be fun to come up with a bunch of money to subsidize the services for a fancy development. (I wish I had that kind of excess money).

This is developers planning our county for us.

My question, and it apparently wasn't discussed yesterday, What will it cost us to make up the difference on services for the development?

I thank Supervisor Rushing for representing the people of Lake County. I hope she is not the only one. And by the way, one question she might have Sari besides how much you will pay, is why in the world would we need this?

Bottom line is; don't whine about the resulting increased fees and contrived taxes later. If this passes - we pay. Both reduced quality of life, and money out of our pockets.

A Pig In The Poke Project -
written by Donna Christopher, January 27, 2010

that will cost everyone. Just like the Geysers pipeline - what an unfunny joke on us. Our $20+ bi-monthly bill is now $60+ and still rising. And when we blow our air quality status we then get to pay for smogging our vehicles. NOMD - I like that acronym. Sorry to hear that Rob has a note passing buddy again - last one was booted from office, best mind your p's & q's there Jim - you were elected to represent ALL the folks in your district and not for tomfoolery on the dias. Remember your primary school teacher - note passing requires you share with the whole 'class'

Re: Re: Good Grief Denise
written by sari, January 27, 2010

Denise should have been prepared to make a decision, even if it is No!

...
written by James, January 27, 2010

I would have thought this would be a no brainer. Its no supervisors. Quit having stupid come out of you.

I just wish
written by Old Coot, January 27, 2010

that Denise Rushing was on the Clearlake City Council...a governing body that badly needs members that will think things through and not allow staff and developers to rush things to completion.

Denise can only be in one place at a time...
written by herb, January 27, 2010

So who IS going to run for the Clearlake City Council?

Denise is right
written by Roberta, January 28, 2010

“Can you answer the question what we're trading for this?”
Well, the developers get the entitlements that will enable them to sell the property to a greater fool since they clearly won't be building on it themselves. In the future the buyer gets to alter the plan and build whatever. The big prize goes to the drivers of Lake County - we will get to pay for smog checks every other year when we register our vehicles and water and sewage capacity problems. Such a deal!
Just thought I'd mention in passing, not that developers and certain of our supes care about trifles like authenticity, but "Tuscan villages" are surrounded by pastures, vineyards, and orchards, not golf courses. This unspoiled rural beauty is why tourists visit Italy (or Vermont). Gosh, maybe we could preserve some little towns surrounded by woods and beautiful productive farmland, too. What a concept . . .

Prediction
written by Roberta, January 28, 2010

The supporters of this project will be whining the loudest when they are forced to pay for smog checks.

Development........
written by local, January 28, 2010

Needs to be where services are already in place. It's really unbelievable that this has advanced to this stage without being shot down. Out of town big shots coming in and having their way with our elected officials that are supposed to be looking out for Lake County. This is a bad idea. Wrong time and place as well as being an inappropriate development.

This offers nothing
written by James, January 29, 2010

If Ms.Rushing is using this to by time so the word gets out,then kudos to her. Can anyone on that board spell, wrong idea in the wrong county. This is like a wart on the end of a ugly witches nose.

LSC(local sierra club) agree with Gore's fuzzy math and global........
written by sweet mystaery, January 29, 2010

Our LSC is now showing just how believable the inventor of the internet is... For example, the LSC has supported the golf course and eventually 800 homes out in the "boondocks" (7 -20 miles for services) the Guenoc Winery one, because they claimed it was necessary to support the meager wine sales...Is this where the "double negative is a positive" was invented or is it because the air pollution (carbon footprint) has hit home??? Cristallago on the other hand is only 2.5 miles from services, so comparing the carbon footprints... Cristallago has "baby shoes compared to the LSC's "big foot".

Jim, the note you passed to Brown explaining this concept was too much for Brown's 162 IQ to handle, so please carbon the LSC's 85 IQer's.

Not to worry
written by Old Coot, January 29, 2010

Just figured it out...all of the Cristallago folks will do their shopping at the new Lowe's center in Clearlake and we'll all be rolling in money. Roads will be paved, stoplights @ four-corners will suddenly function, and the lake will be filled with strawberry ice cream for the tourists. Yep, our government knows best how to spend our money.

Its bad for all of us
written by nihle, February 02, 2010

This site is toxic....
Plain and simple and has levels of abestos in the soil that rival El Dorado Hills, Ca.
They have know about this problem since 2006 and have doen a good job of keeping it from the public....yet, they have kept it from the Planning Commision saying only 5% to 10% of the area to be built on has abestos in the soil. It now looks like 300 home sites, 2 parks, holes 10 to 17 , etc have high amounts in the soil.
Who in the heck would want to play golf or buy a home in an area that is contaminated ?