GLUE Member’s Report – Post SMP Committee Meetings

The most recent meeting of the Shoreline Management Plan Stakeholder Committees was held this week at GRDA headquarters in Vinita, Oklahoma. The committees are land use classification, permitting and allowable use. Prior to this set of meetings, I sent out an e-mail regarding the importance of these meetings because I perceived these groups would be finalizing their recommendation to GRDA for the shoreline management plan. It’s not that I haven’t been wrong many times over these 62 years on the planet, but I’m not sure I ever missed the mark further.

But before I go any further, there’s one thing I want to make sure our membership understands…..the shoreline management plan only applies to the property controlled by the Grand River Dam Authority. In most areas of the lake that would be defined as below the 750’ elevation, but there are areas where the elevation is higher. This plan can not dictate what you do on your property, but it will have a major impact on what you can do on authority property adjacent to your property with docks being a prime example.

If these working groups can develop a consensus over the next six months, they are to be congratulated. The land use group continues to struggle with assigning the appropriate category to the massive thirteen hundred miles of shoreline known as Grand Lake. The categories currently being used are sensitive, multi use, and limited. The working groups have developed some extremely lengthy definitions of these categories, but I’ll try to condense it for discussion purposes. Sensitive use is primarily intended to be just that. Included in this category would be islands, areas considered important to wildlife and fish. Although existing docks would be allowed to remain, it’s likely no new docks would be permitted in areas classified sensitive. Mixed use is assigned to areas that are made up of residential and commercial operation and both would continue to be allowed. Limited is intended to be primarily residential, but some commercial and public use would be allowed, but the permitting of such would be more difficult than in the multi use areas.

As might be expected the application of the sensitive category stimulated the most discussion. One of the criteria used in assigning sensitive is water depth and contour of the shoreline. Bluffs and shallow water were factors being used as well as many others. There was some disagreement over the data being used to determine water depths in many areas and at what lake elevation. Long-time dock builder and realtor/developer Jerry Kropff offered a simple solution to this problem when he said, “Just go down to Littlefield’s Corner and buy a fishing guide for about $14.00 and you’ll have all the information you need.”

Kleinschmidt and Associates, the firm retained by GRDA on the recommendation of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, had virtually eliminated one category defined in previous meetings. Allison Murray, a project licensing coordinator with the firm and the facilitator of these stakeholder meetings, told the group she had eliminated the fully developed category. She explained to the group that she, and her assistant Jennifer Wardwell, didn’t feel any area qualified for the assignment of the fully developed tag. She added, “When we reviewed aerial photos of the areas, there was obviously room for additional development. They were not totally ‘built out’ as this group’s definition would imply.”

As you might expect, the group had some mixed feeling regarding this decision. This led to a lengthy discussion on how to manage the multi use areas and at what point no more development would be allowed in areas like Duck Creek. The group was struggling to find a way to measure just that. Cliff Sager, a wildlife biologist with the Oklahoma State Department of Wildlife Conservation, proposed coming up with a “dock density formula” to assist the group in this area. Under his proposal, an area would be closed to additional docks, regardless of whether they were residential or commercial, if the area exceeded a certain percentage of available surface area. When this happened, a mechanism was triggered whereby a new dock would be allowed to be permitted only if a similar structure were being removed.

In the final committee meeting on Thursday, Allowable use, this approach was again discussed in detail. Darrel Townsend, who heads up the GRDA’s eco-systems group, was skeptical of how such a system could be effectively managed. In the end, the group was still looking for some kind of methodology to define when an area was fully developed. Murray and Wardwell agreed to check out other lakes with shoreline management plans to see how this issue had been addressed and present them at the next meeting.

Jack Lenhart, who is a member of both the permitting and allowable use committees, was anxious for the group to move on to commercial and residential dock permitting. Allison Murray explained to the group that permitting issues needed to be a dynamic document and therefore would not be included in either the recreational or shoreline management plans approved by FERC... She added, “The smp is intended to be one of stated policy while the permitting document is designed as a stand alone document intended to manage the lake and implement that policy. Therefore it needs to be flexible and subject to change without going through the long ordeal to apply for change that would include the involvement of a federal agency.”

The other major item discussed, was the vegetation management plan which addresses what can and can not be done on the shoreline of Grand Lake. This is the document which will include things like brush and tree removal, mowing or weed eating the shoreline in front of your property and much more. Cliff Sager agreed to provide the group with additional input from the Wildlife Department at the next meeting.

Although those of us observing these committee meetings weren’t allowed to take part in their discussions we were allowed to offer our comments before the group adjourned. In short here’s what I told them:

1) I was glad to see the land use group start to finally understand what their actions could mean to people owning property adjacent to Grand Lake. It is important for them to understand what their actions could mean to property values.

2) That we would favor some method to determine if an area was fully developed for the benefit of all rather some arbitrary assignment of the death penalty.

3) That their involvement in the development of a reasonable vegetation management plan was extremely important to all Grand Lakers. I explained that my observation was that GRDA had gone to the extreme on limiting shoreline activities due to law suits, federal complaints and other actions. The authority’s approach of eliminating anything that might generate a negative response, complaint or law suit was far too restrictive. I challenged the group to assign this endeavor a high priority.

Even though I continue to question the make up and the selection process used in establishing these committees, we can be a part of this process. Although the Duck Creek Property Owners Association has far too many participants within these committees, they are only really united on issues like categorizing Duck Creek as fully developed and making absolutely sure no Duck Creek marina is allowed to expand any further into Duck Creek or add any additional growth opportunities like dockominiums. Since their organization has been so adamant bout having GRDA board members, like Terry Frost and Jim Fraser, remove themselves from issues related to marinas, maybe they should do the same in this process with issues relating to Duck Creek. Just a thought for your consideration.

Before these committees meet again, I plan on providing each of you with the minutes from these latest committee meetings. I will also identify the members for you complete with their e-mail addresses. I would encourage you to review the minutes and offer comments directly to them as well as yours truly. There is also a place on our web site in the mail bag area for you to post and share your comments with other members.

Our strength will be in our numbers. We are now at about 100 strong, but we need many, many more concerned Grand Lakers. It’s still all about our numbers if we are to be effective.

Cheers from Grays Hollow