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CLEARLAKE – The Clearlake Planning Commission this past Tuesday voted to give a positive recommendation on the Provinsalia project to the Clearlake City Council.
That resolutions approved unanimously at the commission's Dec. 16 meeting will include supporting the council's approval of the project's final environmental impact report (EIR), general plan amendment and rezone.
Provinsalia is proposed by Lake County Resort Partners Inc., headed by Mexican businessman Jorge Rangel de Alba.
It's slated to be built on 292 acres off Dam Road along Cache Creek, and is proposed to include 665 units – 565 single family homes and 100 condominium units in duplexes and fourplexes – plus a nine-hole golf course.
City staff, led by City Administrator Dale Neiman, spent about the first two hours of the two-hour-and-40-minute meeting answering questions and comments raised in a previous Clearlake Planning Commission meeting on Dec. 2.
One of the comments at the Dec. 2 meeting, raised by Kelseyville resident Angie Siegel, related to the resource protection zoning the property currently has, and its limitations.
“I don't think that zone's reflective of what you can actually do,” said Neiman.
He said that, under current zoning, the 292 acres – reduced to 183 acres when certain undevelopable areas were subtracted – could actually be developed for 1,227 single-family dwellings and another 1,410 multi-family units. That's substantially more than the project proposes, he said.
Regarding Provinsalia's financial viability, Neiman said it won't be 100-percent occupied, judging by the 62-percent occupancy the US Census shows for the rest of Clearlake.
He also provided statistics that showed California's median income – $49,000 – compared with Clearlake's, which comes in at $20,000, the lowest in Lake County. Provinsalia, aid Neiman, would increase the city's median income to $23,000.
In general, residential development does not cover the costs of services associated with residential development, said Neiman. Additional retail sales would be needed to make that up.
Provinsalia would require maintenance districts to maintain the subdivision's internal streets, the off site areas of Provinsalia Avenue, on site drainage improvements, a trail system and fire buffer area, said Neiman. Future property owners would pay an annual fee to cover those infrastructure needs.
Neiman said staff analysis also showed that calls for police service would be below average for Provinsalia, with no impact on the city's public works department.
Clearlake would receive 2 percent more sales tax revenue, and 204 percent more property tax revenue thanks to Provinsalia, said Neiman.
“We believe that Provinsalia would financially benefit the city,” he said, concluding that services would cost less and revenue would equate to more.
As to financially vetting the developer, “That's not the city's role,” said Neiman.
The California Environmental Quality Act does not require the city to check the developer's financial qualifications, which Neiman said is up to the private sector. He said in his experience he's seen many projects be approved by local government but fail later when trying to get financing.
Neiman said the city would require a letter of credit at 150 percent of the cost of improvements so that if the developer fails to make the necessary infrastructure improvements, the city can pull the letter and do the improvements itself.
Planning consultant Melissa Floyd said the city's current inventory of undeveloped lots range in size from 2,500 to 5,000 square feet, and almost all are served by dirt roads or roads with substandard paving, with some having inadequate drainage.
She said Provinsalia is proposing full road and drainage improvements. “It's going to be offering a different kind of housing than is already available,” said Floyd.
Added Neiman, “It's just a different market.”
Discussing the comparisons raised at the Dec. 2 meeting between specific plan and resource protection zoning, Floyd said when considering a rezone, it's important to look at consistency with other issues, not current zoning. For instance, is it consistent with land uses and policies?
She said the specific plan designation would offer additional protections above and beyond what the land now has.
Floyd added that it's not within the city's ability to force the developer to set aside land within a conservation easement.
Neiman said he understood why the applicant sold off 224 acres that originally had been part of the project. That land is located outside of the city limits and considered largely unbuildable, and would have meant that two government agencies – the city and the county – were reviewing the plan, making it even more complicated.
He addressed concerns one resident had raised about eminent domain regarding the right-of-way for Provinsalia Avenue, which would be the main thoroughfare into the project.
Neiman said if the developer can't acquire the right-of-way on their own, the city would tell them the project would be denied.
“We're not going to put the council or the city in that position of condemning somebody's property,” he said.
In addition, Neiman said the city will not allow Mello-Roos financing, which is a type of public financing through the sale of bonds. If something went wrong the city wouldn't have the staff to effectively address it, he said.
Regarding Provinsalia's visual impact, Floyd noted, “The EIR does conclude the aesthetic impact to be significant and unavoidable.”
Therefore, she said, the Clearlake City Council will have to accept overriding considerations and benefits in order to approve the EIR.
Provinsalia would encompass 95 acres of oak habitat, with 51 of those acres proposed for removal, 63 slated for restoration and 46 acres not impacted. Floyd said the city's oak tree protection and removal ordinance will apply to the project.
The EIR analysis shows no endangered species in the project area, said Floyd. Detailed studies on cultural resources hadn't been included in the EIR, but proposed mitigations would go beyond the draft EIR.
Climate change and concerns over state regulations had been raised at the previous meeting.
“This is one of those things that's a moving target,” said Neiman.
AB 32, passed in 2006, requires a reduction in greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020, said Neiman. In 2007, the state passed SB 97, which evaluates climate change under the California Environmental Quality Act.
Neiman said a supplement climate change analysis in the EIR concluded that the project is OK in regard to the state's guidelines.
Floyd said Provinsalia's goal is to provide a project that includes open space, a golf course, pedestrian trails and resort development. No other sites inside the city's interior could handle this kind of development.
Neiman said Lake County Sanitation's sewer system and treatment plant capacity is sufficient, as is that of The Geysers pipeline. However, the sewer collections system has serious problems.
At the Dec. 2 meeting, a Caltrans representative said the agency wouldn't permit Provinsalia as proposed because of their concerns about its traffic. Neiman said Tuesday that Caltrans originally had agreed to the city's traffic study, then officials later changed their minds.
Regarding water supply, Provinsalia will have to buy water from Konocti County Water District, and will use about 300 acre feet, said Neiman. That will leave the district with another 1,800 acre feet available for other customers. In order to supply water for the golf course, water will be purchased from Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District and taken from Cache Creek.
Only a few comments were offered by members of the public, including Sierra Club Lake Group Chair Victoria Brandon.
She said that, on the face of it, the EIR's climate change provisions appear adequate in general.
However, she said she had sent the information on the oak woodlands to the California Oak Foundation, and that doesn't meet their requirements. Brandon said replanting trees can't make up for the lost carbon sequestration.
After the public hearing had been closed, commissioners voiced their support for the project.
Commissioner Bill Perkins said Provinsalia will be good for the city in a lot of ways. “It's going to solve a lot of our problems,” he said.
Commission Chair Carl Webb thanked everyone for participating in the public vetting process – including Brandon for bringing forward a number of concerns. He said the public's input is important due to the project's size.
“There's a tremendous amount of benefit that comes out of this if we do it right,” said Webb.
Vice Chair Al Bernal made the motion to accept the resolution recommending the Clearlake City Council certify Provinsalia's final EIR, which the commission approved in a 5-0 vote.
Commissioner Gina Fortino-Dickson said she felt it's really important that the commission had five minds and 10 eyes looking at Provinsalia. She said the commission had done everything possible to complete its due diligence, and now it was time to pass it along to five new people, the council.
She moved to adopt a resolution recommending the council adopt the specific plan rezone and general plan amendment, which also was approved 5-0.
Webb told the audience that there will be further opportunity for the public to speak when the Clearlake City Council takes up the project next year.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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