SUSANVILLE – Two Northern California counties are facing lawsuits over recent decisions to rezone timberlands owned by Sierra Pacific Industries.
Lassen County supervisors violated the county general plan and a plan for the Eagle Lake area when they approved the company's request to change nearly 5,500 acres from timber production to agricultural forest zoning, said Laurie Davis, president of Friends of Lassen Forest, which filed the action Tuesday in Lassen Superior Court.
In Sierra County, a local group filed a petition in July seeking to reverse county supervisors' action in March to rezone more than 7,000 acres in a remote area surrounded by the Tahoe National Forest.
The land near Jackson Meadows Reservoir is a biologically sensitive area that hosts endangered species, said Stevee Duber, a spokeswoman for High Sierra Rural Alliance.
Sierra supervisors approved rezoning the timber company's land to general forest after determining that the action would be exempt from California environmental regulations. That is contrary to the county's general plan, claims Michael Graf, an attorney for High Sierra Rural Alliance.
In addition to overturning the Sierra County zoning action, the plaintiffs have asked for a court order requiring an environmental review for future zone change requests.
Lassen and Sierra counties are among five Northern California counties where the Anderson-based timber company has sought to remove land from timber production zoning. County supervisors, in separate actions, have approved new zones for 18,839 acres of Sierra Pacific lands.
A decision involving 7,826 acres in Plumas County is still pending, said Jim Graham, interim assistant planning director.
The newly approved zoning designations start a 10-year countdown that will end the tax benefits Sierra Pacific has enjoyed under timberland production zoning, approved by the state Legislature in 1976 to encourage long-term working forests. After the 10 years, the company could request new zoning designations that permit development.
Sierra Pacific officials requested the new designations to increase their management options, said Cedric Twight, a Sierra Pacific forester.
In their split decision in June accepting the withdrawal of Sierra Pacific lands from timber production zoning, Lassen County supervisors rejected a Planning Commission recommendation.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials also objected to the changes that removed the forestlands from timber production in Lassen County.
Friends of Lassen Forest is seeking to reinstate the timberlands production zone and require an environmental review on future requests to withdraw land, said Gabe Ross, an attorney with Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger, which filed the petition.
Neither Lassen County Counsel Craig Settlemire nor Sierra County Counsel James A. Curtis was available to comment on the lawsuits.
