By Kevin Opsahl | Posted: Sunday, January 25, 2015 12:00 am Herald Journal
Residents, Garden City officials and others debated the “paradigm shift” between restrictive access and open access to Bear Lake in a conference call on Saturday with Rep. Curt Webb, R-Providence, who is sponsoring a bill in the 2015 legislative session changing the way residents and tourists can use the lake.
HB140, “Sovereign Lands around Bear Lake,” says that a person is guilty of an infraction if they drive within 100 feet of the water’s edge unless they’re launching or retrieving a vessel, transporting an individual with limited mobility or depositing and retrieving equipment to a beach site.
Garden City Mayor John Spuhler and several residents on the call, including local business owners, worried that Webb’s bill would legitimize problems with teens and tourists using ATVs and other vehicles on the beach in a careless manner.
Spuhler said the city has been working with various constituents to address the issue of access to the lake, namely with the Bear Lake Regional Commission and the Public Implementation Review Group (PURG).
“It’s got be a balance, and I think if you can take some language that will allow people to get to key spots, Representative, then we can work that out, but if your goal is to allow the same ATVs we have up in the mountains, that’s not going to work,” Spuhler said.
Webb maintained his legislation would not turn Bear Lake into a “racetrack.”
“That is not what this says; it says that it’s the norm you can restrict (access); it accomplishes what you got now,” the Providence lawmaker, who owns a home in Bear Lake, said on Saturday.
The key element to the bill is “to say land should be open,” Webb explained. “This bill doesn’t change the ability of sovereign lands to have a land-use plan or the impetus as to what that land-use plan should be. What it does do is change is the paradigm so we’re clear about (providing) public access.”
Webb explained his intention of the proposed legislation is to mitigate the effects of previous legislation that limited access to Bear Lake. In creating the new bill, Webb said he talked to officials at the Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.
“I said, ‘if you were making a plan that said make as much open as possible, would that have changed your plans? They said ‘there are probably a few more places to make open,’” Webb said in an interview after the conference call. “Current code really shut it down. The fact it was so closed down last year leads me to believe that it’s a good idea to have better guidelines.”
A number of residents sounded heated with Webb during the conference call, accusing him of turning the beach into a “racetrack,” or not respecting the work that PURG has done to address the long-standing issue of access to the lake.
Steve Arnold, general manager of Ideal Beach Resort, who is also a member of PURG, was more conciliatory, however, saying what stakeholders “really need to do is find middle ground.”
“It is absolutely irresponsible to open up parallel travel to the lake. I’ve had people almost killed by motor vehicles,” Arnold said. “The PURG has done a good job, and we want public access, so we’ve got a good voice, Rep. Webb.”
Spuhler added, “We all want access — it drives our economy, we have a lot of people that enjoy this place because the beautiful lake — so we have to consider access. The real focus in the future has to be how we look at our comprehensive management plan. That is our constitutional principle and future,” referring to the PURG.
Spuhler noted that Garden City received $500,000 from the state last year to expand parking due to the increasing number of tourists in the spring and summer months.
Reflecting on the call in an interview, Webb said that he heard “a lot of good things” from residents, he would check on some of its key provisions and “proceed” with getting the bill through the Legislature.
“I think they understand I’m not trying to make the whole lake a raceway, I’m just trying to say the default should be open instead of closed,” he said.
Spuhler and others noted on Saturday the bill does not have a fiscal note, or language mandating funding, which led to questions over how well the bill could be enforced.
Brian Cottam, division director/state forester at Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, said funding has been limited.
“Oftentimes, we don’t have flexibility we’d like to do the right thing on the ground because the right money has not been appropriated or available,” he said.
Bill Cox, Rich County Commissioner, said the legislation comes at a critical time for Bear Lake tourism.
“This is the first time in 50 years I’ve seen cars parked on the west side of the highway because the east side was full,” Cox said. “One way or another, we’ve got to work together and realize this is not going to be perfect (legislation). We’ll do our best regardless of the legislation proposes. (Law enforcement) has done a lot to step up and I think they’ve done an excellent job.”
————
Twitter: KevJourno
No comments:
Post a Comment