- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Sunflower restaurant building demolished
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Another of the city of Clearlake’s historic lakeside buildings is no more.
Earlier this month, Chernoh Excavating took down the Sunflower Chinese restaurant at 14525 Lakeshore Drive.
The building’s owner, Roopa Shekar, did not respond to requests from Lake County News seeking comment for this story.
The building formerly was known as the Lakeshore Inn, according to an email sent to the Clearlake City Council by longtime city resident Bob Mingori earlier this year.
The Sunflower restaurant operated there until it was closed in 2018. In December 2018 the city deemed it a public health and safety hazard and a public nuisance.
After the previous owner failed to address the issues, the city issued an abatement order in April 2021 and was set to approve a demolition contract with Chernoh in July 2021 when Shekar, who had purchased the building in June 2021, came forward to ask for time to handle the building’s abatement issues and upgrade it herself.
When the city said Shekar didn’t meet the deadlines for abating the building, the council went forward in April with approving a $53,439 contract with Chernoh Excavating to demolish and abate the structures.
Shekar appealed that decision, City Manager Alan Flora denied her appeal. During a special June 2 meeting the council voted unanimously to uphold Flora’s decision while also directing staff to give Shekar the opportunity to submit the engineered plans in order to get the building permit for the necessary work.
In a June email, Shekar told Lake County News that she had challenges getting the help she needed with the project, including finding a structural engineer. However, by that point she had managed to find an architect to assist her.
In July, she reported that she had submitted all of the plans the city wanted.
However, as time progressed, the building, while fenced, did not appear to be undergoing the necessary abatement.
Despite the fact that the city had given her the chance to do the work and that council members including Russ Cremer said they had hoped the building would be saved, the decision was made to go forward with the demolition.
That’s because Flora said Shekar would not commit to renovating the building.
At the Clearlake City Council’s Nov. 3 meeting, Flora said work had been underway to move the asbestos from the building and then the demolition would take place.
A week later, the building was down, Flora told Lake County News.
In his April email to the city council, Mingori, who realized the building needed a lot of work, nonetheless urged taking measures to save it.
He said when the building was the Lakeshore Inn, it had been “the place to be” on Friday nights.
Mingori said other notable older buildings in Clearlake had fallen into disrepair, leading to their demolition. In other cases, such as the former Wisedas Resort, the building was destroyed by an arsonist.
Ultimately, the Lakeshore Inn, which Mingori said had been the last of those buildings, experienced the same fate and was demolished.
The site now is cleared, leaving an empty spot on the lakeshore.
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