We are a community that still sees the Milky Way in the night skies, and perhaps that allows us to dream visions and to bear their fruits. So much right now is about vision and how we envision our community, including the land surrounding Mount Shasta governed by the decisions of the Forest Service and the County, because our actual town boundaries are quite small. This section, About Town and County, is about the City and County actions that deeply touch our quality of life. Right now we have an amazing opportunity to influence Mount Shasta City because of revisions to the General Plan, the Retail Building Size Restriction Ordinance (also known as the Big Box Ordinance), the Lake Siskiyou Timber Management Plan, and the November Elections.

A Zoning change or Rezoning request is a developer’s first step when the property zoning designation fails to match a proposed project. If the location and the project demands it, this is when the public must clearly voice its opposition to rezoning. This rezoning request first goes through the Planning Commission for their recommendation and then the City Council makes the final vote. Zoning Requests for the County land which surrounds Mount Shasta City goes through a similar process in Yreka. We need a volunteer, (possibly someone who lives within the sphere of influence for Mount Shasta, but is in the County, not the City limits) to review the Agendas and attend these meetings in Yreka. Please call the Ecology Center at 926-5655 if you are interested.

Three new City Council Seats
First, I urge everyone to VOTE. The November Elections will usher in three new seats on the Mount Shasta City Council. Will we become Any Town USA? Will there be sensible green growth balanced by open spaces in town, a thriving downtown, protection of our wetlands and other flowing streams? How much land will be commercially developed and how? We can not recommend specific candidates as a non-profit, but we can encourage you to ask around about the values of each potential candidate and make an informed decision. Given the keen development interest in our area, our City Council will be making the final decisions on many future projects.

Greening Mount Shasta with the General Plan
City Hearings on the General Plan are beginning. Input is needed on the Circulation and Open Space Elements that will affect traffic flow and the values placed on preserving open space. The General Plan contains the working language that directs the visions for ten years to come! You might say it is the matrix of the vision. Please call City Hall and ask for a schedule of the upcoming meetings and when to submit any written comments.

Timber Management Plan for Lake Siskiyou
The County owns much of the property around Lake Siskiyou, the local jewel for swimming and a lot of frolicking for out-of-town campers and recreationists. The County states that the primary objectives of the non-industrial Timber Management Plan are to preserve aesthetics, reduce fire hazards, and promote healthy forest and wildlife diversity that will look 50-100 years into the future. However, after attending the July 13th Public Scoping Meeting at the City Park, it is clear that there are various ideas as to how this could be achieved. Although the consulting Forester for the Plan projected 20-25 logging landings of and anywhere from 3 to 20 logging trucks per day, the actual number of trees to be removed has not been formulated. Please call the Siskiyou County Public Works Department for the next scheduled scoping meeting. Public input is greatly needed by attending scoping and final decision meetings as well as writing letters. Any written comments to the County Public Works Department should also be sent to our Supervisor Lavada Erickson, who represents us in this part of the County. The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors will have the final decision once the plan is completed.

Big Box Ordinance,
aka the Retail Building Size Restriction Ordinance
Walmarts and Superstores are known as the ‘big box’ stores, bringing not only large scale shopping but also economic impacts to communities. The Planning Commission and the City Council decided to investigate methods for limiting the size of retail and other related buildings within the City of Mount Shasta “for the purpose of preservation of the small town character of the mountain community."
The draft Retail Building Size Restriction Ordinance states that it would allow a “sizeable retail store” to locate here. However, it sets thresholds whereby special considerations are given for buildings larger than 20,000 square feet (Ray’s is around 27,000 square feet); encourages solar integration into buildings; provides exceptions to the strict interpretation of the ordinance in certain uses; exempts hospitals, public buildings owned by a government entity, and conference/convention centers; and limits the ultimate size of commercial and multi-family buildings to 50,000 feet square feet—although multiple individual buildings of this size could be permitted as long as there is a minimum of a 20 foot corridor between the individual buildings.

The current draft does not contain language requiring a socioeconomic impact analysis of such “sizeable retail stores” on the downtown businesses and the community, which we recommend. Please request a copy from Mount Shasta City Hall, attend the next public hearing(s) on the draft, and submit your comments in writing.

Rezoning request denied!
This recently occurred with the CDMS request to Mount Shasta City to rezone nearly 30 acres of unclassified zoned property of mostly wetlands to C2 zoning. The C2 zoning allows the most lenient commercial projects by right, including truck stops. In three lengthy hearings, the City Planning Commissioners and then the City Council denied the rezoning request by CDMS by one vote. Many of you who have lived here since the 80’s know that a similar request was made roughly 20 years ago and ended in a court decision. The property is part of the rural green belt west of I-5 and north of Hatchery Lane. The City Council had the final decision on this rezoning request. We anticipate more rezoning request on both the City and County level that will affect Mt. Shasta City.

The Ecology Center has assisted several communities seeking to keep wireless communication (cell towers) out of residential areas. Our website has provided much needed information on the health effects and also how to utilize the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)