JoAnn Saccato is current chair of the Lake County Community Co-op.

While I am not in agreement with the recent decision of the Clearlake Planning Commission to recommend the Clearlake City Council certify the environmental impact report for the Provinsalia project, I am quite encouraged by the process and have a renewed hope for our democracy. People are becoming active in designing and co-creating the community we all call home.

Once, individual property rights were considered the top priority. Today, we can no longer deny the connected nature of all things, and the good of the whole community becomes more important than the good of the few. While once the path and priorities of a community were set by a select few, usually those with property and money, people have awakened to making those decisions that affect them and their community directly.

Provinsalia affects many aspects of the community. Clearlake’s population is beginning to see that there are seemingly far more important considerations at hand than a potential substantial profit for the owners, developers and contractors. Sewer, land use, traffic impact, environmental degradation and school impact are just a few of the areas where local community members have voiced opposition. My guess is that if a substantial portion of the community were found to be against a project, the City Council would be bound by ethical commitments to honor their constituents.

Here are a few more points of consideration:

– Raising the median income of Clearlake is a worthy goal, but, to do so by importing a population of a much higher income bracket to achieve this is, well, deceptive, in the least, and disregarding the current population at best. If our city is committed to this goal, which I wholeheartedly support, then the focus should be on the existing residents of Clearlake.

– Has the developer pledged to use local labor for construction and support services? How many of the current or recently completed construction projects in Clearlake use/d local contractors and labor? If our city were really committed to raising the living standards and median income of our residents, they would make efforts to ensure that our local citizens are being employed whenever possible, thus increasing income and the dollars spent in local community.

– What will Clearlake need to become in order to cater to this new population that we are enticing to move within our city limits? It is already well understood, and admitted by city staff at the last meeting, that residential development in itself actually cost cities money. So, cities usually depend on increased commercial activity to offset costs and positively affect the city’s coffers.

While this may be true (though hard to believe possible in the economic crisis we find ourselves), if the city were committed to supporting the existing locally owned small businesses and encouraged the continued gentrification of downtown and Lakeshore Drive, then this could be seen as a commendable act. But, instead, the city of Clearlake is negotiating with big box stores that will actually decrease local income due to the local multiplier effect (LME).

This economic function tells us that $100 spent at a national retailer yields a return of about $15 to the local economy, though, when that same $100 is spent with a local retailer, it returns about $45 or three times as much income to the local economy. Also, the returns in the community from the national chain stores are usually in the form of lower-level service job wages, and none of this even takes into account the local support services (i.e. accountants, printers, etc.) that local businesses utilize that chain retailers usually do not.1 If we are trying to grow decent paying jobs for residents, big box chains in our community will not support this, and they drive out the independently owned merchants. How many businesses closed as a result of Wal-Mart’s entrance into the city? How many more will close if Wal-Mart is allowed to expand? This doesn’t seem to be an effective way to support our local community or grow our local economy.

– This model of development is not only not sustainable, it is actually contributory to the current economic and environmental crises we find ourselves today. It is outdated and outmoded by new and diverse models of development that seek to uplift and benefit all equally rather than just a small, affluent portion of it. The model of the sustainable future includes infilling already existing development and designing communities for walking, bicycling and small electric motorized vehicles rather than large distances traveled by big automobiles. It includes revitalization efforts that include education to create and support small, local businesses and production.

Again, the happiness I feel stems from the fact that the whole community is participating in the future of development for Clearlake. People are stepping up and voicing their concerns and opinions. There is hope that Clearlake will not fall wayside to the now-crumbling dominant economic model of development that has contributed to the demise of our social, economic and environmental fabric. This, to me, is reason to celebrate.

JoAnn Saccato, a native of Lake County, is a master's student at Sonoma State University and current chair of the Lake County Community Co-op.

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