Over the years I've publicly opposed the local branch of the Sierra Club on a number of issues, ranging from the Upper Lake travel plaza to the smoke tax placed on growers, but the criticism they are getting over their recent lawsuits filed against the county and city of Clearlake is completely wrong. The county got sued because Jeff Smith, Rob Brown and Jim Comstock are unclear on the fact that the general plan isn't just a collection of vague wishes, it's the law and when you want to do something different you need really, REALLY good reasons for it.

The city of Clearlake got sued because they thought they could cut some big corners on their attempt to turn the old airport into a new shopping center, and figured that no one would care enough to take them to court over it. Any other project that required that much earth moving, grading and re-compaction would require that an environmental impact report (EIR) be done and the city knew that, but gave itself a free pass on it anyway. It wasn't the cost or time involved that made an EIR so unappealing for the city, it was the fact that they would finally have to address the economic impacts of the project, including those outside the city limits – maybe they didn't want to explain how they planned to mitigate the closure of several local hardware stores!

Very few people here realize exactly what the Sierra Club's biggest impact on development is, since they only hear about the large, controversial projects. Probably 95 percent of their effort goes into improving projects rather than stopping them, and this frequently saves tax money and prevents lawsuits by making sure things are done right the first time. A good example is when not long ago the city of Lakeport was going to approve a plan to put a 100 foot tall plastic pine tree next to the courthouse to use as a cell phone tower, the Sierra Club stepped in and got them to co-locate the antennas on the roof of the courthouse where they have far less visual impact and will generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for the county. This is why they are respected by the people in the Community Development department, Sierra Club oversight and involvement means better quality projects and fewer mistakes – which is good for everyone.

It's pretty simple: don't break the law and you won't get sued!

Philip Murphy lives in Finley.