- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Clearlake City Council gives Sunflower restaurant owner final chance to submit renovation plans
The council held a special hour-and-a-half-long meeting Thursday afternoon to consider Roopa Shekar’s appeal after the city hearing officer — City Manager Alan Flora — denied her appeal of the city’s order to abate the building, located at 14525 Lakeshore Drive.
Once upon a time the building was known as the Lakeshore Inn, one of the busy lakeside resorts that in its heyday was “the place to be,” longtime city resident Bob Mingori told the council in an email this spring.
The building most recently housed the Sunflower Chinese restaurant, which operated there until it was closed in 2018. 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.
The city had no luck getting the owner at that time to abate the building, and in July was set to approve a demolition contract when Shekar, who purchased it the previous month but said she did not know it was under an abatement order, came forward to ask for more time to renovate it.
However, with city officials reporting little progress had been made, in April the council voted to approve a contract with Chernoh Excavating to demolish and abate the structures, and since then Shekar has appealed to the city to let her continue her work.
City leadership has faulted Shekar for not getting the needed work done while Shekar said during Thursday’s hearing that the city hasn’t set realistic deadlines based on the work that needs to be accomplished.
Assistant City Attorney Dean Pucci of the Jones & Mayer law firm walked the council through the public hearing, explaining that it was not meant to get into the project’s merits but to consider whether or not to overturn Flora’s denial of Shekar’s appeal based on the information Flora had available to him during the April appeal hearing.
Shekar asked for a continuance to give her more time to bring in her team to discuss the matter, stating she only had eight days’ notice. The council denied that request and moved forward with hearing the appeal.
Councilman Russ Cremer asked Shekar how much time she needed to get the required reports to the city in order to receive permits to move forward. Shekar said six weeks.
Councilwoman Joyce Overton asked if the council could give Shekar a certain amount of time to try to meet the requirements and avoid abatement. Pucci said that once the council made a decision on the appeal, it could tack on whatever parameters that it wished for how staff should handle the abatement.
Greg Palmer, another lawyer with Jones & Mayer who works on code enforcement matters, assisted Code Enforcement Manager Lee Lambert with his presentation to the council.
Lambert reviewed the nearly four years of effort by the city to see the property cleaned up and improved, ending in the April council vote on the abatement contract and Flora’s subsequent denial of Shekar’s abatement appeal.
Shekar said the hearing wasn’t fair because none of her latest pictures showing the work she has done on the building were included in the evidence offered.
The pictures Lambert presented to the council showed the building’s deteriorating interior, with damaged walls and the ceiling, holes in the Sheetrock, missing and damaged flooring, and mold in the bathrooms.
In response to questioning from Palmer, Lambert said it was his opinion that the building needed to be demolished. While he said it was possible that it could be renovated, it may not be viable due to cost.
Shekar told the council that she has continued her efforts to complete plans in order to do the work. She brought out what appeared to be architectural plans on large sheets of paper and showed them to the council.
She said she has cleaned the building, secured it and put up cameras.
Asked by Lake County News during the meeting’s public comment portion about what Shekar needed to do in order to get permits and start work, Flora said the way to cure the violations is to acquire a building permit.
From the very beginning, Flora said, Shekar needed to submit engineered plans in order to get that permit.
Flora said he had agreed to hold off on making a decision in Shekar’s first appeal hearing for two weeks in order to allow her to contract with an engineer and a general contractor.
Shekar said she had submitted a letter from a general contractor but Mayor Dirk Slooten said that letter did not constitute a contract, as the city required.
Pucci told Shekar the hearing was her opportunity to present to the council what she felt was flawed in the April appeal hearing before Flora. “We’re bleeding over into more of a request for more time and continuance and evidence of what Ms. Shekar has or has not done” and not whether Flora made the proper decision with the information he had at the time.
Cremer said he had been hoping Shekar would succeed. “It can only go so far and it’s been nearly a year now,” he said.
Shekar said the project has been extremely challenging, with finding people to do the work one of the key problems. It took almost three months to complete an as-is build plan.
“Your credibility is becoming a little thinner to me, to be honest,” said Cremer, pointing out that she had tried to get a roofing permit before she had looked at the soundness of the walls or foundation.
In looking at the photos presented as evidence, Overton said she saw a lot of Sheetrock damage which is repairable, but no evidence of structure problems.
“Why is it that we consider this structurally unsound? Where is the proof from our side that this is structurally unsound?” she asked.
Slooten pointed to a letter from an engineer that said there were structural issues, but Overton replied that none of the evidence said the building was unsafe to repair.
The council voted unanimously to uphold Flora’s decision to deny Shekar’s appeal of the abatement order against her property.
However, council members also directed staff to give Shekar the opportunity to submit the engineered plans in order to get the building permit.
Her new deadline to complete those tasks is Aug. 1. If the building permit is issued before then, Flora won’t sign the contract for Chernoh Excavating to demolish the building.
“You’ve got to follow through with this because we're being lenient here,” said Overton.
Police Chief Andrew White also noted that the property has high weeds that need to be mowed. Shekar said she would take care of it.
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