LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Clearlake City Council will hold a special Thursday afternoon meeting to consider an appeal by the owner of the Sunflower restaurant of the city’s order to tear down the building, one of the last of the old lakeshore resorts.
The council will meet at 3 p.m. Thursday, June 2, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
The meeting will be broadcast live on the city's YouTube channel or the Lake County PEGTV YouTube Channel. Community members also can participate via Zoom or can attend in person.
The agenda can be found here.
Comments and questions can be submitted in writing for City Council consideration by sending them to City Clerk Melissa Swanson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
To give the council adequate time to review your questions and comments, please submit your written comments before 1 p.m. Thursday, June 2.
Each public comment emailed to the city clerk will be read aloud by the mayor or a member of
staff for up to three minutes or will be displayed on a screen. Public comment emails and town hall public comment submissions that are received after the beginning of the meeting will not be included in the record.
The council will hold a public hearing to consider an appeal of the city’s hearing officer’s order, who denied an appeal of an order to abate for the property located at 14525 Lakeshore Drive.
At its April 7 meeting, the council voted unanimously to approve a contract with Chernoh Excavating to demolish and abate the structures at 14525 Lakeshore Drive, the former Sunflower restaurant.
The building previously had been known as the Lakeshore Inn, and was once a popular night spot.
The city deemed it a health and safety hazard and a public nuisance in December 2018 and issued an abatement order on April 29, 2021.
In May 2021 the city opened bids to demolish the structures and the council was prepared to award the contract on staff’s recommendation in July when Roopa Shekar, who purchased the property in June, contacted the city and asked for the chance to renovate the property.
The council took no action on the demolition contract in July in order to give Shekar a chance to comply with the abatement orders.
In April, the council approved the latest version of the demolition contract and, later that month, the city held a hearing to consider Shekar’s appeal. The city’s hearing officer decided on May 9 to uphold the abatement order and to deny the appeal.
That led to Shekar appealing to the city council.
The city has faulted Shekar for not meeting the requirements in a timely fashion, including failing to submit engineered plans to work on the building before seeking permits, as she recently did in attempting to reroof the building.
Shekar, in turn, told Lake County News that she has tried to meet the requirements but has struggled to find architects and contractors who could do the work in the tight timeline the city has established.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Clearlake City Council to hold special meeting on Sunflower restaurant abatement
- Elizabeth Larson
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