Lake County board approves offers for Middle Creek flood‑restoration property purchases; motion carries 5-0

Board member Betsy Khan asked the Lake County Board of Supervisors, sitting as the Lake County Watershed Protection District board of directors, to delay approval documents on item 5.6 until staff provided a technical memo and parcel maps explaining why any payments above market rate might be needed for the Middle Creek project.

"No, my concern is that, I'm familiar with the particular resource involved. I understand the necessity to purchase properties to complete the Middle Creek Marsh flood damage control and ecosystem restoration project and the fact that there are some unwilling sellers," Khan said during the discussion before the vote.

County staff responded that the properties included in the current approval are willing sellers and that the process has involved appraisals and state review. "All of these were willing sellers. This has been a long time in the works, between getting their properties appraised, getting the state of California to approve the appraisals," a county staff member said.

Supervisor Spatier moved to approve offering to purchase the parcels tied to the Middle Creek flood damage reduction and ecosystem restoration project and to authorize the chair of the board of directors to sign the approval documents. The motion specified approval of the appraisal documents and authorization for the chair to sign the latest iteration of the approval documents uploaded to Granicus. An unidentified board member seconded the motion.

Lloyd, identified in the meeting as a county staff member, clarified that there are four approval documents in Granicus that would be signed as part of the motion and that the board's approval covered the latest versions of those appraisal approval documents.

The board approved the motion by a 5-0 vote. The chair announced, "Any opposed? That motion carries 5 0 0." The record does not include individual roll-call votes by name.

Khan had said she would not have asked for the item to be pulled if a technical memo showing parcel maps and an explanation of any need to offer compensation above market rate had been included with the agenda materials. County staff said those materials and a related letter will be returned to the Middle Creek Restoration Project Committee for final approval and that the committee memo will be presented back to the board around mid‑August (date not specified in the record) to address nonwilling sellers and related funding questions.

The action taken at this meeting covers only parcels for which sellers are willing and for which appraisals have received state approval; staff indicated additional steps will be necessary to address parcels held by unwilling sellers and any need for supplemental funding. The agenda materials in Granicus and the committee memo were referenced during the discussion; specific parcel counts and compensation amounts were not specified in the board discussion recorded in the transcript.