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Lake County GPAC reviews draft land-use map, looks to updated CAL FIRE and FEMA hazard layers
Summary
PlaceWorks and county staff walked the General Plan Advisory Committee through draft general-plan land-use changes from eight local advisory groups and flagged new CAL FIRE and FEMA hazard layers, plus a proposed 20-foot riparian buffer for Clear Lake tributaries.
PlaceWorks consultants and Lake County planning staff briefed the General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) on a draft countywide general plan land-use map that compiles recommendations from eight Local Area Plan Advisory Committees (LAPACs) and includes new hazard layers from CAL FIRE and FEMA.
The GPAC meeting began with an overview from Mireya Turner, Community Development Director, and Tanya Sundberg, principal at PlaceWorks, who said the map viewer shows parcels the LAPACs recommended for land‑use designation changes and that the team will use the map as the basis for environmental review. "The web map viewer includes the recommended general plan land use map changes from the LAPACs, and those are the focus of our discussion today," Sundberg said.
The nut graf: the committee was asked to confirm LAPAC map recommendations while keeping recent hazard-map updates in mind. PlaceWorks flagged two hazard data streams in active public-review or update processes: CAL FIRE’s updated fire‑hazard severity/local responsibility area maps and FEMA’s updated 100‑ and 500‑year flood maps. Both data sets will be used as constraints and filters as the general‑plan and EIR work continues.
In the presentation, Tammy Seal of PlaceWorks reviewed the hazard layers available in the map viewer and stressed the distinction between mapped hazard and mapped risk: "These maps show us they evaluate hazard. And, which is not necessarily risk. So it's hazard based on the physical conditions that create the likelihood, and the expected fire behavior over a period of time." Seal noted the CAL FIRE local responsibility area update is newly released for a 90‑day public review period and will be added to the viewer once it is adopted. She also reminded the committee that FEMA flood‑mapping updates are underway and that the project will use the most current adopted maps.
The team also called attention to a proposed resource‑conservation designation not yet visible in the web viewer: a 20‑foot riparian buffer around Clear Lake and its tributaries to help protect the Clear Lake hitch, a species addressed in a parallel conservation strategy. "I want to highlight a recommended change to apply the resource conservation designation as a 20 foot buffer around Clear Lake and around its tributaries, and that's as a conservation strategy for the Clear Lake Hitch," Sundberg said.
The meeting included a short troubleshooting exchange about the map viewer: some attendees could not immediately find the grouped hazard layers inside the viewer’s layer panel; PlaceWorks clarified the CAL FIRE SRA and FEMA 100/500‑year layers are nested under a grouped “hazard layers” menu and can be toggled on and off. Staff also said they will directly notify property owners affected by proposed changes and will collect public input at resourceplanning@lakecountyca.gov for the CAL FIRE map update.
Ending: Staff said the map and LAPAC recommendations will guide the county’s environmental review and that the GPAC should use the map viewer and the upcoming housing action/implementation presentation to form a countywide perspective before making any broad recommendations to the Board.
