The Clearlake city council has voted to move forward with its eminent domain power to take a piece of property and move forward with a landslide repair project. The piece of land on San Joaquin Avenue is in the way of work to repair the slide caused by a storm last February, which engineers say is necessary to maintain a portion of Lakeshore Drive. Lake County News reports that property owners Bailey and Andrew Hulett filed a lawsuit earlier this month to block the take-over. The city offered the Huletts $990 for the 790 square feet, but the Huletts say while they don’t dispute the repair, they question the need to take their land. The city says says a large part of the land they need it right of way but that there is no way to do the work without using the property the Huletts now own. City attorney Dean Pucii told the city council before its 4-1 vote that their decision is the first step in a legally required process.
