Waterski lake development halted.

[Wish]

Not sure how I feel about this. Of course there’s 2 sides to every story. But it’s a big story in South Florida and could have a ripple effect on the waterski community as a whole the way the developers are being portrayed both in print and on the local news. Recent news video shows they lost in court. Best it can be now is a fish farm.

 

“The arrogance of west Boynton water-ski lake developers has been tolerated long enough”

 

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/opinion/editorials/2021/01/12/palm-beach-county-must-crack-down-arrogant-west-boynton-developers/6636500002/?fbclid=IwAR0lBtUHMC9tqf-2FyZlIvsH3XcBAB6UPmxK_rdDJmlaFl0tR3BEvobsABo

 

https://www.wptv.com/news/region-s-palm-beach-county/hearing-to-address-water-ski-park-under-construction-in-west-boynton-beach

[Clydesdale]

The story as written is pretty damning. I’d like to hear their side of the story, but I’m sure they can’t comment due to ongoing litigation.

[Stevie Boy]

There you go! trying to hoodwink the Authorities isn't going to cut it, you mess with the environmental and agricultural people they will make you pay and unfortunately any other poor person trying to develop a ski lake, in the future.

Transparency at all times will win the day, tell them what you want to do and how you intend to do it, then sit back and listen, while they tell you, if and how it is going to be done.

The people who are involved in this have done our cause no favours.

 

[Wish]

Sounds to me like the neighborhood was the biggest catalyst to active push back on the project. Seems without them, the local authorities probably would have let it slide. Pissing off your neighbors and looking like elitists is a $hit poor way to start a project that directly affects them. Thinkn their lawyer took them down a dead end road. Hope they didn’t pay him much.

[DavidN]

It is true that the neighbors got together and had been able to halt the whole project. Seeing that all too often here in Florida. Concerned residents with very little clue stepping up, pressuring their commissioners and getting a ton of developments stopped or denied.

In that particular case Chet and his buddies should have taken the time to educate the neighbors before starting to build something - even though they are not really close to the development site and wouldn’t be affected much in the end.

The comments these “concerned” neighbors gave are hilarious and clearly show that they really don’t know what a ski-lake is and how it is used.

They seemed to me more concerned about the fact that the developers would haul away “precious” fill dirt and sell it for a profit than anything else.

Anyhow - pretty sad.

[BraceMaker]

Unfortunately there isn't really a different side - now that they've entered to the court that they have no intention to use it to waterski its gonna be hard to walk that back.

 

I wonder what the penalties would have been for failure to stop work on a ski lake and failure to properly permit the ski lake.

 

Says 155 million paid for 143 acres - wouldn't a few hundred grand of penalties be worth not backing yourself into a fish pond?

[Horton]

@BraceMaker 15.5 million not 155 million. Sort of makes a difference.

[dvskier]

I’d say investing that much money without having necessary permits could be a costly decision. It’s hard to believe Chet would overlook this critical point.

[BraceMaker]

@Horton sure does!

 

They should fix their reporting - seemed like a crazy number but its hard to know what land goes for places.

 

 

 

[MichaelGoodman]

@BraceMaker look again

[BraceMaker]

@MichaelGoodman I'm with you two, different articles. I just cited an incorrect article.

 

The point remains when you spend 15.5M and then I would assume a few hundred thousand digging there isn't any fish farming that's going to pay it off.

[BMG73]

Well they could of collected some old junker cars and put them all over the property. Make it look like crap. Leaking oil and whatever else into the ground and the county wouldn’t do crap about it. You can’t put something nice in that boosts the local economy. What were they thinking!

[lpskier]

Got to sell a lot of ski rides to recoup that investment. Also, the price of local catfish just went up!

[loeweb]

So now what? Get it re-zoned? Sell lots on it?

[MISkier]

Put a rendering plant there - would be aligned with agricultural use.

[BraceMaker]

@loeweb looks like intentionally or not this parcel is smack dab in the heart of property that has a lot of people with interest on the land usage.

 

https://discover.pbcgov.org/pzb/planning/publications/Ag_Reserve_Master_Plan.pdf

https://www.cobwra.org/committees-contact/ag-reserve/

 

 

[Marco]

That's a really unfortunate and costly mistake. The best advice we got before building our lake was from Will Bush. He said to be absolutely clear with what the lakes uses are during the application process. We had our attorney present when we met with the county to lay out our plan. The following spring when the lake was dug and we went to subdivide the property, the county engineer tried to reneg. Our attorney met with the commissioners to describe our previous meetings, and we were approved in about 5 minutes.

[loeweb]

@BraceMaker soooo, row crop the outside and irrigate with the lake?

big mistake like others have said

 

[oldjeep]

Alligator farm - would that be agricultural use?

[jjackkrash]

In California all the lakes were catfish farms back in the day. I'm not sure whether that is still a common practice.

[thager]

Organic agricultural fertilizer plant might change some minds! Pewwww!

[Broussard]

@jjackkrash Tri-Lakes was an abandoned catfish farm when the Bennetts, Lees, and Haynes decided to turn the property into a water skiing facility. I don't think many go this route anymore as it is typically easier, quicker, and cheaper to start with dry dirt.

[drew]

It's no secret that the participant numbers in competitive water skiing have a strong positive correlation to the number of (approx) 2300' x 300' private (or public with restrictions) water bodies that are in existence and accessible in some way.

Our governing bodies need to focus on this relationship, and aim to streamline the process for lake developer candidates. Presently, each and every wannabe lake farmer dreamer needs to reinvent the wheel (often at a drain of a substantial portion of their potential lifetime product) just to get started with the endeavor.

Streamlining the process ought to include the production of information that illustrates the net environmental gain component of water ski lakes, as well as the many other benefits (health, community, open space, economic, etc). It seems that the lack of education amongst critics (often fearful and uninformed neighbors) can lead to a strong and uninformed opposition.

Economics has dictated the locations for many of the hundreds of man-made ski lakes across the country, causing lakes to constructed on fairly large tracts in the path of growth but some years out. Looking at aerials of South Florida, it is incredible to see the amount of development that has occurred in the past 30 years. It seems a shame that more ski lakes weren't dug a few decades ago, as the water bodies ought to be viewed as pleasant and welcomed compliments to (and reprieve from) the endless development of subdivisions.

[BraceMaker]

@loeweb just checking what the big mistake was? Digging the lake or them blocking it?

[MillerTime38]

@drew so the governing bodies should have stepped in to educate the neighbors on how a private waterski lake would help them out? That would be an awful tough sell, considering less than 1% of the community probably gives a crap about competitive waterskiing, perhaps these developers should have tried to talk to the neighbors themselves before thumbing their nose at them and doing whatever the hell they wanted to do even when told by the county to stop.

 

On the other hand 15.5 million for 143 acres, there has to be some other investment opportunity other than a private ski lake they were after to make a profit paying more than 100k per acre ???

[loeweb]

@BraceMaker I'd say digging the lake without permission.

[BraceMaker]

Agreed. I thought you meant the city coming down on them for it!

[drew]

@MillerTime38 No the governing bodies should not have stepped in to educate neighbors... My suggestion is centered around the fact that we all hear how difficult the permitting process can be to dig a lake, time after time--when from an environmental standpoint the construction of a ski lake may not be quite as offensive as is often perceived. If the growth of the sport is tied to the creation of more venues, then the governing bodies have a vested interest in possibly facilitating what is currently a very cumbersome process. Information from a credible governing body can offer this.

By no means is this a dig at any of our governing bodies--these organizations face very difficult challenges in many ways, and certainly do a very good job in terms of organizing our sport and disciplines (usually involving extremely dedicated volunteers). But by bringing awareness to the value of the creation of new venues, it is possible that the governing bodies could really benefit in the medium to long term as far as growth.

I understand that USGA, by having invested in producing some informative materials, has helped to streamline the application process for a developer who wishes to build a golf course. At the end of the day, ski lakes are very similar to golf courses--yes, a bunch of dirt and water is being moved around, but in the end there is open space for a variety of species to flourish. The more open space with ponds/lakes, the better our environment, yet it seems things can go off the tracks to those not familiar with what exactly is being proposed, stifling opportunity for our sport to grow.

[The_MS]

The permit process is easy if you grease the correct people.

 

 

[BraceMaker]

@drew I'd rather see them invest their time in getting courses permitted on public water or in publicly accessible areas.

They could spend time working with Milwaukee to get the veterans lagoon set up to have a tournament again if not the Malibu open maybe Wisconsin state/regional events. This would only require working with a city and the parks department continually for a plan to control water quality. Imagine something in Chicago where the river is fast becoming safe to swim in.

They could work with the states to have a unified application process not through the state's natural resources but through USA Waterski directly for courses.

 

Florida has had a ton of waterski lake development its a clear process that people have sorted out - this one is just in an agricultural land use planning.