GLUE Member Report 04-15-09
GRDA
Board Meeting – Happy tax day!! As reported last week, the GRDA’s
April board meeting was last Wednesday. The only thing which really caught my
attention was an agenda item to revoke three residential dock permits. The
directors elected to attempt some additional contact measures with the three in
question. I was interested from the standpoint of what had caused this type of
action and it turned out to be of the most basic…non payment of dock fees. It’s
really pretty amazing that only three remained unpaid out of the 6,000 plus
private docks on GRDA lakes.
Their procedure included repeated
billings, registered mail and posting notices on the docks involved. The
problem really is that the next course of action is to serve the dock owners
and demand removal on the non-permitted structures from the lake. But if a dock
owner doesn’t have a couple hundred for a dock fee, spending a few grand to
have a dock removed doesn’t fall in the likely to happen category. The final
action would be for the authority to remove the dock and bill the owner for
charges incurred but that takes me back to the two hundred bucks. The authority
would almost be better served waiting for the property in question to change
owners and requiring all unpaid fees be brought up to date, by filing a lien, as
part of the dock transfer.
One of our members was at the
meeting to get some commercial docks approved to serve secondary lots for the
new Fox Pointe development at the mouth of Dripping Springs. Even though he had
a good understanding of the commercial dock permitting requirements, he had to
jump through some hoops, but in the end got the approval of the board to move
forward.
Grand
We were given a very complete
presentation on the Federal Power Act, which empowers FERC to supervise lakes
like ours which generate electricity. They addressed the portion of their
license which deals with property within the project boundary which I sent to
all members last week. With all the regulations presented, and if you are
interested I can forward a copy of the slides presented, it appears the best
possibility to solve the problems is a boundary modification to declare
anything above 757’ elevation as being surplus with respect to the project’s
operation. This would remove the property above the 757’ elevation from the
project boundary and eliminate FERC supervision of the property. GRDA would
continue to own the property and theoretically open up the opportunity to
either buy or lease the land from the authority without FERC involvement. This
may be way too simple to ever get done, but we have submitted this approach as
a recommendation.
In the for your information
department, while discussing an encroachment issue on the
On Saturday morning I listened to
the entire tape in its entirety. Everything the authority said they had done in
this case was documented on the tape. The land owner in question, by-the-way
not a GLUE member, either had a short memory or misrepresented what had
transpired to me. I have encouraged the authority to publicize the wire move in
order to eliminate a lot of the he said/she said stuff which usually rears its
head in any dispute. We’ll see, but consider yourself informed.
I came away from the meeting
encouraged regarding the authority’s interest in resolving some of these
issues. Currently only stiff arms and dock cables and their associated cable
can legally occupy property within the project boundary. At a minimum we’d like
to see this expanded to include supports for walkways and other structures like
observation decks.
Habitable
Structures Update.. I also learned last week that progress is being made
on the development of regulations to cover these structures. They could
possibly be ready for presentation to the board of directors in the next month
or two. As promised, I submitted our recommendations of things we felt should
be included in any regulations. I’ll paste those below for your review. Anybody
ready for some warmer weather besides me? Be safe out there.
Cheers from Grays Hollow
Mr. Davis:
It’s our understanding you are handling the task of
developing rules and regulations for possible board approval pertaining to
habitable structures. As you know, Grand Lakers United Enterprise supports
these structures as a convenient and economical vehicle to enjoy what
Management of both gray and black water through the utilization of an approved
septic system, pump-out service or a system which burns waste products.
The inclusion of the current state electrical and plumbing codes.
Inspections throughout the construction phase to insure compliance with
standards established for these structures.
A license, with associated training, for those contractors designing and
constructing these structures.
An annual inspection as part of the permitting requirements.
The establishment of an annual permit fee to offset any costs incurred by the
GRDA staff.
Construction specification similar
to what can be found in the covenants in residential developments which would
define acceptable building materials, the requirement of encapsulated foam,
minimum requirement on insulation factors and exterior appearance including
roofing specifications.
The grandfathering of existing
habitable structures based on permitting for such a structure and associated
physical inspection.
We feel certain there are more, but these are the ones we
feel should be considered at a minimum. If we can participate in any other way
with the development of the possible habitable structure regulations please
contact me at this e-mails address or by phone at 918-782-7710.
Rusty Fleming
Executive Director
Grand Lakers United