Waterfront Garage Planning

After reading & hearing about a proposed waterfront garage and its location in the waterfront area near the Kayak racks, we sent a request to the Board of Directors that they poll the members for feedback on their plans for the location of this proposed garage.

We received a response from board member Tom Mullins thanking us for our concern regarding “our beautiful waterfront” and inviting us to attend the next BOD meeting when this project, among others would be discussed.

Upon receiving this response, we felt encouraged there might be an opportunity to discuss the placement of the garage, so we attended the 2/15/2020 BOD meeting at the clubhouse.

There was no discussion on this topic during the main part of this meeting, and all meeting attendees were asked to leave the clubhouse so the BOD could have a non-public session. When asked about the discussion of the garage and other 5-year planning items, we were told that we could come back for the 5-year planning meeting after they came out of non-public session. They would send a text message and let us know we could return.

When we returned to the 5-year planning meeting we were immediately told by John Barba that there “would be no public input during this meeting.” We found this lack of community engagement in 5-year planning discussions rather frustrating (to put it politely). We stayed and listened, and the following is a summary of the garage item:

• A 14 x 28 garage is planned for the waterfront area to be located by the kayak racks.
• The cost of the garage is $11,000
• Applications for permitting are in process.
• Drawings for the project were shown to the 5-year planning group (a subgroup of the full BOD).
• No plans to survey the membership on this project through the new web site were discussed.
• At one point during the discussion, board member Tom Mullins stated that the quality of the garage was so robust that if it had to be moved for any reason (like negative member feedback?) that it could be moved to a different location.
• There was also talk about expanding parking in that area as well.
• It was not clear if any trees were going to be cut down, but there was discussion on removing shrubs and replacing them with a different species.

Waterfront real estate with views of the lake are some of the most valuable parcels in the lakes region and not typically the ones you choose to build garages on. There are at least two Suissevale homes that will likely have direct views of this new garage where they formerly had views of the lake, beach and lagoon. All of us that travel or walk on Castle Shore Road and enjoy the beautiful views of the lake, beach and lagoon will now be greeted with a 14 x 28 garage.

Feedback from Suissevale residents should be solicited on projects like this, and unilateral decisions with no input from the community members is not good community stewardship.

Kind Regards,

Jim & Cathy Graham