- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Clearlake City Council greenlights sale of Ogulin Canyon Road property
The council voted unanimously at its Thursday night meeting to sell the 21.25-acre property parcel at 2185 Ogulin Canyon Road to Kim Gardner.
The city listed the property for $398,000 and Gardner made a full-price offer, City Manager Alan Flora said.
Flora said the city had purchased the property in 2016 for a new Public Works corporation yard and animal shelter facility.
But a staff report in February showed that the site had a number of issues. David Swartz, the city’s consulting engineer, analyzed the site and concluded that there were issues with size, topography, the need for significant earthmoving and the access road.
Since then, the city has moved forward with a new animal shelter facility at the current Public Works yard and is working with the county to locate the Public Works Yard near the Lake County Sanitation District’s Southeast Treatment Plant, Flora said.
Flora said Gardner asked for a 90-day escrow period to perform due diligence.
Realtor Dave Hughes, who is handling the sale for the city and listed the property, said the 90-day escrow will give the buyer 60 days to conduct the due diligence.
Hughes said he believes Gardner plans to use the property for some kind of cannabis processing operation, not for growing.
“The 60 days is just to give her time to do whatever investigations she wants to do before she proceeds with the purchase,” he said.
Hughes said he has received a lot of interest regarding the property from people wanting to grow cannabis – even getting inquiries that morning.
The biggest hangup, he said, has come when he tells prospective buyers that the city is more restrictive on commercial grows than the county, at which point most of those individuals seem to go by the wayside.
He said the cannabis growers he’s getting interest from prefer to have outdoors grows rather than go to the expense of building indoor ones.
Councilman Russ Perdock asked if the buyer could provide proof of funds within the 60-day due diligence period. Hughes said yes.
City Attorney Ryan Jones said the 90-day escrow period should give the buyer the opportunity to get her funding in order and he didn’t believe the council needed to put any special conditions on the sale.
The council went on to approve the sale 5-0.
Flora’s written report to the council explained that if the council approved the agreement, he would take the proposed sale to the Clearlake Planning Commission, which will review it for general plan consistency. Close of escrow would be contingent on that determination from the commission.
In addition to the Ogulin Canyon Road property, the city currently is in the process of selling the two parcels that make up the former Austin Resort to Bailey Building and Loans LLC, a development firm that wants to build a resort and marina project at the site.
The city is expected to receive $350,407 for the parcel it owns at 14071 Lakeshore Drive and $88,815 from its share in the portion of the property at 14061 Lakeshore Drive, held by the city’s redevelopment successor agency, with proceeds, therefore, to be broken up among several taxing agencies.
Flora told Lake County News that the county’s redevelopment oversight board met on June 8 and approved the Austin Resort property sale.
The city is facing a tight 2020-21 fiscal year budget – revenues are $5 million lower than the 2019-20 budget year appropriations – so the pending property sales are expected to help the city’s financial situation.
The funds the city would receive if the Austin Resort and Ogulin Canyon Road sales are finalized total approximately $837,222.
“None of the potential proceeds from the sales are currently budgeted,” Flora said.
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