LAKEPORT, Calif. – After 19 months of work, the city of Lakeport has a new plan to bolster economic development in its borders.

Last week the Lakeport City Council unanimously approved the Lakeport Economic Development Strategic Plan for the years 2017 to 2022, which starts on page 82 of the staff report below.

Community Development Director Kevin Ingram presented the plan to the council, lauding the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee – several members of which were on hand for the presentation – for leading the effort to develop the document.

Ingram said there are key plan goals on which the city already has made significant progress, including the lakefront plan and the downtown improvement project. “So it hasn’t been wasted time.”

He explained that the plan was created as part of the city’s response to the end of redevelopment.

Without redevelopment and its implementation plan, he said the city was “sort of floundering” in some of its efforts.

In crafting the plan, Ingram said it became apparent that there already are amazing organizations in the city working toward the same goals.

He said they also determined that the city already had a number of existing plan studies at its fingertips that would be useful resources, including the city’s 2009 general plan, the redevelopment agency five-year implementation plan for 2009-14, the ongoing Lakeport Lakefront Revitalization Plan, as well as the Lake County Comprehensive Economic Development Plan, completed last year, and Lakeport’s 2003 Business Retention and Recruitment Plan.

The effort included a SWOT analysis to tie together all of the city’s resources, as well as an economic and statistical analysis that looked at labor pool information, he said.

That analysis found that nearly half of all city residents make less than $35,000, compared to one-third statewide who make less than that amount, while the median household income level are $25,000 less in Lakeport than the state average.

He said Lakeport’s 2015 unemployment was 5.2 percent, lower than the county and state numbers.

The study also showed the steep drop in transient occupancy tax, also known as bed tax, experienced by both the cities and county, tracking the numbers from 2000 to 2015.

The numbers began dropping beginning in 2008 due to the recession and continued from 2009 on, the year Konocti Harbor Resort and Spa closed, according to the report.

Ingram’s presentation showed that Lakeport’s TOT numbers in 2015 were $57,700, a 15-year low; its highest bed tax during that decade and a half that was tracked was in 2001, when it brought in $172,300.

For comparison, the city of Clearlake had its lowest TOT amount in 2000, $148,200, built steadily and topped out in 2007 at $248,700 before dropping close to $100,000 annually for several years. In 2015 its numbers had recovered to more than $206,000.

The county’s TOT numbers were the best in 2008, at $1,355,900. It hit its lowest point in the 15 years tracked in 2013, when it bottomed out at $694,300. In 2015, it was at $856,500.

While TOT is recovering, it is a slow process, Ingram said.

The study looked at the primary retail market area, finding that general merchandise stores and nonstore retailers are lacking, he said.

Ingram said goals of the plan included promoting and participating in regional economic development initiatives, expanding and supporting business retention and attraction efforts, striving to enhance the historic downtown and lakefront area. He added that the city already was making progress on many of those goals.

Some of the efforts the city wants to undertake is pursuing more wine-related businesses, as the city has only one tasting room, Ingram said. They also want to expand out further with business outreach.

Mayor Stacey Mattina called the document “impressive.”

Councilman Kenny Parlet pointed to the plan’s analysis of retail and its saturation. Pointing to the effort of Dollar General to come into the city, Parlet asked, “If we have four times what we need, why do we need another one.”

He asked if the plan could be a tool for looking at future projects.

“It’s a tool,” said Ingram, noting that if the city wanted to go in the direction Parlet suggested, it would need to make fundamental changes to its existing ordinances.

Parlet said that when driving through St. Helena and Calistoga, there are small businesses, not chain stores, which he said was a result of those community doing purposeful planning. He suggested the city’s new plan could lead to a similar outcome for Lakeport.

Ingram said the city also is dealing with a perception that it isn’t easy to do business in Lakeport. Most of the ordinance changes or recommended positions coming out of the study is aimed at making doing business in Lakeport easier.

Silveira noted that the city currently doesn’t have any tools that allow it to look at saturation of the market when allowing in new businesses and projects.

Parlet said the plan is to retain local businesses, the flavor of the community and vision, but added that there is a missing piece about control.

Mattina said the government doesn’t decide what people want to buy or where they want to shop, and owners have the right to do what is allowed on their property.

Parlet pointed out that commercial property is cheaper in Lakeport but there are more vacancies. “Is this a consequence of the can't do business in Lakeport kind of thing?”

Ingram acknowledged those pricing differences and high vacancies, noting that some vacant buildings aren’t move-in ready for businesses.

Parlet said he would love to see more restaurants and asked if there is a way to help entrepreneurs deal with the high setup costs. Ingram said Community Development Services issues business loans and helps with plans, and the city is now finding business owners who want loans, when a few years ago they couldn’t give the money away.

He cited Twisted Sisters restaurant as a good example of a new business coming into the downtown and revitalizing a block that had been dead two years ago.

“That's really changed over the past year,” he said, adding that now they would like to see the former TNT’s Restaurant site on the lake and Bigg’s restaurant across from Library Park revitalized in order to change downtown’s dynamic further.

Ingram also told the council that LEDAC is looking into ways to easily update the plan in the future, and Silveira said they want to revise it as projects are completed.

“We are definitely seeing things happen. Maybe we are on a roll,” said Mayor Stacey Mattina.

Councilwoman Mireya Turner moved to approve the plan, with Councilman Tim Barnes seconding and the rest of the council joining in the unanimous vote.

At the July 18 meeting the council also accepted a donation from the Lakeport Main Street Association for the the city’s annual July 4 fireworks and approved an agreement with JJACPA for independent auditing services.

The council also adopted a resolution to have $34,000 in delinquent utility charges – up from about $4,000 at this time last year – collected on the tax roll for fiscal year 2016-17, and fixing the time and place of a hearing on the charges.

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