CLEARLAKE, Calif. – At its regular meeting on Tuesday the Clearlake Planning Commission approved an expansion for a daycare and new signage rules, and got an update on a proposed development project that is still in the works.
The first item on the hourlong meeting's agenda was the request from Cherry McCracken of Rumsey Rascals daycare for a minor use permit to expand her facility, located on Rumsey Road.
Commissioner Russ Cremer, who is a neighbor of McCracken's, recused himself from the discussion.
McCracken plans to expand Rumsey Rascals from a small in-home family daycare facility with a maximum of eight children to a large in-home family daycare facility with a 14-child capacity.
A neighbor raised an issue of parking on the roadway, which she said is already small and not well maintained.
Overall the commission appeared to have minor concerns about the project and approved it 4-0 before Cremer rejoined the meeting.
The commission then turned to the business of necessary upgrades to the city's signage rules as the result of a US Supreme Court ruling handed down in June 2015 regarding an Arizona town's signage regulations.
Attorney Crystal Hodgson of the firm Jones and Mayer, sitting in for the city's usual attorney Ryan Jones, explained that as a result of the case Reed vs. The Town of Gilbert, some changes to the city of Clearlake's existing sign code were required.
“Before that case, most federal courts ruled that cities could have a limited number of content-based regulations where they regulated signs based on what the signs contained. That was a little bit of an undecided legal issue,” Hodgson said.
In the Reed case, Hodgson said the Supreme Court decided that if you have to look at a sign and read its content in order to decide how to regulate it, it's content-based and is unconstitutional unless it can meet a high standard of scrutiny. She added that standard is difficult to meet.
Hodgson said she helped Assistant Planner Julie Burrow go through the city's sign and election codes to identify areas that needed to be changed.
One area of the election code has regulations pertaining only to political signs, and because it's content-based it's no longer permissible, Hodgson said.
Instead, Hodgson recommended removing that section from the election code and adding another in the signage code to allow for temporary, noncommercial signs in all zoning districts.
“Those provisions would allow for political and ideological signs,” Hodgson said.
They also allow for temporary signs with any message in residential neighborhoods, including for one-time events like yard sales or neighborhood parties, she said.
Other changes included allowing properties growing agriculture additional signage, clarifications for calculating sign area and limiting the size of window signs.
City Manager Greg Folsom told the commission that, as part of the zoning code updates, city staff will be doing a detailed review of the whole sign ordinance.
The commission moved to approve the updates 5-0.
Also on Tuesday, Folsom gave the commission a brief update on a proposed development agreement between the city and Orosco Development No. 19, LLC for property located at 15885 Dam Road.
He said the property is located on Dam Road just north of the Carl's Jr. restaurant, and is the site where there had been plans at one point to place a Fresh and Easy grocery store.
Fresh and Easy went into bankruptcy and began selling off property, with a developer purchasing several of those properties, including the one on Dam Road, Folsom said.
Folsom said he's been in discussion with the developer for a while, talking about a development agreement.
“We currently do not have what are called development improvement impact fees,” which go toward improving streets and other capital facilities, Folsom explained.
As the city puts its new general plan in place, Folsom said there are plans for also implementing such fees.
“In lieu of that I've been negotiating with the developer to provide a payment to the city that would help us to pay for some street improvements, specifically the Dam Road extension,” which Folsom said will go from the end of Dam Road up to 18th Avenue.
He said they are still negotiating a certain point of the agreement, the final version of which he hopes to have back before the commission at its next meeting later this month.
“We're not ready to go into all the details on it,” Folsom said.
However, since the hearing already had been publicly noticed, Folsom gave the update to the commission, which continued the matter to its July 19 at his request.
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Clearlake Planning Commission approves daycare expansion and new signage rules, gets development agreement update
- Elizabeth Larson
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