LUND 09/02/2021 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Towne, Jason From: Donald Lund <shortceo2012@gmail.com> Sent: Wednesday, September 8, 2021 11:31 AM To: Towne, Jason Subject: Voyager Village 2021 Proposal for Marina Expansions Mr. Towne, I am sending this email to you to let you know my thoughts about the proposal by Voyager Village to expand its marina facilities on Cadotte Lake. As a Loon Lake lakeshore owner and a member of the Loon Lake Property Owners Association, I oppose this planned expansion. I am sure you know that Loon Lake and Cadotte Lake function as one body of water with only an island separating them. A further increase in boating activity will only continue the deterioration of our lake's water quality that began when Voyager Village expanded its marinas in 2002. That was when Voyager Village agreed at a meeting with the Burnett County Board that if it was given approval to expand its facilities at that time, there would be no further requests for expansions. Now, because its members have requested additional rental boat slips, no doubt Voyager Village sees rental slips as a good sales tool as well as a source of additional income. I have always considered Voyager Village to be one of the local highlights that makes Burnett County attractive to potential future residents, but that doesn't give it the right to expand its usage of local lakes beyond their capacities. The Voyager Village 2021 proposal for boat slip expansion was apparently submitted to the DNR on July 8th of this year. That proposal anticipates an 80% increase in the capacity of the Cadotte Lake marinas to a total of 70 boat slips. At 126 acres and a substantial portion of its southern reaches not suited for boating, Cadotte Lake will continue to depend on Loon Lake with its 227 acres to provide the space needed for pontooning, water skiing, kayaking and jet skiing. Along with putting additional pressure on Loon Lake's water quality, this will increase the potential for accidents and decrease safety for the lake's users. In its 2021 proposal, Voyager Village states it is qualified to have as many as 202 boat slips on Cadotte Lake based on the State Statute of one dock for every 50 feet of shoreline. That Statute is well beyond current standards for lake development. Recently the Statute allowed one dock for every 150 feet of shoreline. But, even at 150 feet the number of docks permitted on a lake would be more than is practical with more actual spacing of one dock for every 200 to 300 feet or more of shoreline for lakes already developed such as Loon Lake. The water quality issues raised by the Voyager Village proposal are similar to those related to expansions of camp grounds where demands for boating facilities can far exceed the ability of the adjacent lake to support the boating activities safely and without undo deterioration of the lake's water quality. Loon and Cadotte Lakes are similar to most other lakes in their region being small and shallow lakes. Cadotte Lake has a maximum depth of 21 feet and Loon Lake's maximum depth is 28 feet. A large portion of both lakes are at or less than 10 feet of depth where bottom disturbance from boating is shown by studies to be the greatest. That makes them susceptible to the re-solution of bottom sediments containing nutrients that can increase algae and plant growth and reduce clarity excessively. And, today's boats being ever larger and having bigger motors, can have negative impacts at depths greater than 10 feet. I urge you to consider how important is it for Voyager Village to provide spaces for their members to park their boats on lakes that are not even close to where the member lives and is not something that Voyager Village was likely to have promised them. In fact, Voyager Village still cannot promise such a benefit to a potential buyer without even more increases to its marina capacities and the accompanying deterioration