Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation directors suggested changes to lakefront property laws during the Kosciusko County Area Plan Commission meeting Wednesday. Sam Leman, foundation chair, and Heather Harwood, executive director, presented their latest draft of revisions to the Kosciusko County zoning ordinance section on lake access development. Current law does not cover corporate use of lakefront property, Leman noted, an oversight which came to light early last year when the foundation opposed plans for dredging and pier installation by Buckingham Companies, which was then in talks to buy Oakwood Inn on Lake Wawasee. The foundation’s proposed changes add hotels and motels to the list of lake access developments, and specifies that each sleeping room or rental unit must be counted as a residential unit for purposes of providing shoreline footage. The proposal calls for increased shoreline access per residential unit, with a minimum of 100 feet for the first residential unit – double the current footage. The proposed language also requires a maximum of one watercraft dockage space for every 250 square feet of service area for retail businesses or restaurants. “We’re not necessarily married to everything in here,” Leman told commissioners, adding that they would like to see the parts addressing commercial use of lakefront moved on as quickly as possible. The overarching purpose of the proposed changes is to minimize the impact of lakefront developments on the shoreline, he said, especially the excessive use they saw in the former proposal for Oakwood. Harwood said they began working on the proposed changes in summer with input from other area lake associations. Commission member Bob Conley said he didn’t think businesses would pose a threat to the shoreline, and that focusing so much of the changes on shoreline requirements “is a red herring, I think.” Stephen Snyder, an attorney with Snyder Morgan in Syracuse, who attended the meeting to represent other matters, told commissioners he supports what the foundation is doing but questioned the proposed changes. He said the ordinance they are seeking to amend was meant to address funnelling, the use of shoreline by a development set back from the lake. “It was never intended to penalize the owner of lakefront property, and now it’s further restricting potential use,” he said. “It penalizes the lakefront owner, not the guy off the lake trying to funnel.” He also said he doesn’t think they considered the fact that piers can be installed perpendicular to the shoreline rather than parallel, requiring less space. At commissioners’ suggestion, Snyder said he would be happy to work with the foundation on its proposed amendments.
