lake elmo city council wants to change skiing time

Lake Elmo City Council considers expanding hours for water skiing
By Bob Shaw
[email protected]
Posted: 04/15/2013 12:01:00 AM CDT
April 16, 2013 3:44 AM GMTUpdated: 04/15/2013 10:44:17 PM CDT

Water skiers would be able to use four Lake Elmo lakes early in the day if a proposed city ordinance is approved.

Skiing is allowed on most of the lakes between noon and sunset, but the ordinance would extend those hours to sunrise to sunset. The city council is expected to vote on the rule change Tuesday, April 16.

“With this, you will attract more families, more active people to Lake Elmo,” said city council member Justin Bloyer, who co-sponsored the ordinance with city council member Nicole Park.

The change would affect four lakes — Elmo, Jane, DeMontreville and Olson.

The extended hours are opposed by residents who worry about extra noise and the effect on the city’s character.

“I am very saddened by the council action” to consider the change, said Roger Johnson, president of the Lake DeMontreville/Olson Lakeshore Homeowners Association. “It does not represent the majority.”

Johnson said the change would make the Lake Elmo lakes among the least restricted in the metro area.

The current rules don’t mention water skiing, but say that the lakes are no-wake zones from sunset to noon. Wakes — and water skiing — are permitted from noon to sunset. The exception is Lake Jane, where wakes are banned from sunset to 9 a.m.

Extending the hours would change the peaceful character of the city, Johnson said.

“This is a night-and-day difference,” he said. “You are messing with something that has been around since about the mid-’80s.”

City council

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member Bloyer said the rules now are inconsistent and complicated.
He said that the noise heard in residents’ houses from a motorboat would be about 79 decibels — comparable to a neighbor using a lawnmower. Motorboats are subject to ordinances limiting noise, he said.

Bloyer said the ordinances would boost property values, because buyers will pay more for a home on a lake that can be used for water skiing.

“People are spending upwards from $500,000 for these homes,” said Bloyer. “It infuriates people who spent money for homes on the lakes to find out they can’t water ski.”

City Administrator Dean Zuleger said that the rule change is complicated by the fact that about half of the DeMontreville shoreline is owned by the Catholic Carmelite Monastery and the Jesuit Retreat House — both places that thrive on tranquility and quiet reflection.

Officials from those facilities have written letters objecting to the change, Zuleger said.

Bob Shaw can be reached at 651-228-5433. Follow him at twitter.com/BshawPP.

IF YOU GO

The Lake Elmo City Council is scheduled to vote on proposed changes in the permitted hours of water skiing on four city lakes. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, at City Hall, 3800 Laverne Avenue N.

I already emailed the city council with my displeasure. I advise others to do the same.

One of the truly charming things about those lakes are the peaceful quiet mornings. You’re out there fishing with 20 other boats and you’d never know it. No noise, no wakes, wonderful. Making this change is a very bad decision. Who needs to be water skiing at sunrise? And am I really supposed to believe lake shore property values are dependent on available water skiing hours?

I’d like to express my displeasure but I’m not sure the Lake Elmo city council cares what some guy from South St. Paul thinks.

Rootski

Disclaimer – I am a waterskier and will post as such.

I am also somewhat open minded and I don’t undertand what they are proposing.

For example are they going to change the regs to allow wakes before noon? If it’s just expanding the wake hours then this opens it up to wakeboarding and tubing. Jet skis will be allowed to produce wakes before noon but I believe not sunrise as there is a state reg on that one. That’s a lot different traffic than just waterskiers.

Will this be truly written for to allow waterskiing only between sunrise and noon? Can’t imagine that will have hardly any impact. First off, how many waterskiers are under the age of 40? Skiers get tired way faster than tubers or even wakeboarders. The runs take less time and therefore less impact. When I take a ski run it’s a few minutes. When my sister gets on the tube we’re making wakes for a half hour straight.

How do you distinguish between skiers and wakeboarders? Seems like someone would challenge that.

Lastly on my bias. As a slalom skier I love calm water and won’t ski when it’s all chopped up. One of my favorite regs is the one that doesn’t allow jet skis until later in the morning. They can screw up calm water for hours straight as they don’t get tired. Typically tubers don’t get out until 10’ish or so in the summer either. What that means to me is if I want a good run then I need to get my butt out early. It may be a bit chilly but it’s what I need to do to get calm water. I would love it if I could live on a lake that had waterskiing wakes only before noon

Just another example how Lake Elmo is getting wrecked by the idiots running it and other outside influences.

Here are the results from the meeting, fisherman lose again:

After 5 hours of testimony from over 60 taxpayers, the Lake Elmo City Council voted 5-0 to retain most of its current Water Craft and Water Surface Use Ordinance, making one provisional change to when wake can be created on Olson Lake, Lake Demontreville and Lake Jane.

The Council considered a proposal, put forth at the request of two members of the City Council, to eliminate most of the current Local ordinance deferring lake use regulation to state law regulated by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. In the end, the Council decided to retain a lion share of the current ordinance as a matter of safety and to strike a balance between those who create wake when using the lakes and those that do not.

“It was a long night that was filled with emotion. The Council recognized that people are highly invested in this issue because the lakes are their backyards. Each piece of testimony was seasoned with the individual way the lake impacts our resident’s quality of life. In the end, the Council decided that it was best to leave much of our current ordinance alone,” said City Administrator Dean Zuleger.

The highlighted change made to the ordinance in an effort to strike a balance between lake use and safety was to reduce the wake creating restrictions on Olson Lake, Lake Demontreville and Lake Jane to sunrise on the weekdays and 9 AM on the weekends and holidays. However, Mayor Mike Pearson has noted that he will ask the Council to revisit the time issue before the ice is out of the lakes and that he will consult with Washington County and the MNDNR as to the effect of any change to the time.

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Disclaimer – I am a waterskier and will post as such.

I am also somewhat open minded and I don’t undertand what they are proposing.

For example are they going to change the regs to allow wakes before noon? If it’s just expanding the wake hours then this opens it up to wakeboarding and tubing. Jet skis will be allowed to produce wakes before noon but I believe not sunrise as there is a state reg on that one. That’s a lot different traffic than just waterskiers.

Will this be truly written for to allow waterskiing only between sunrise and noon? Can’t imagine that will have hardly any impact. First off, how many waterskiers are under the age of 40? Skiers get tired way faster than tubers or even wakeboarders. The runs take less time and therefore less impact. When I take a ski run it’s a few minutes. When my sister gets on the tube we’re making wakes for a half hour straight.

How do you distinguish between skiers and wakeboarders? Seems like someone would challenge that.

Lastly on my bias. As a slalom skier I love calm water and won’t ski when it’s all chopped up. One of my favorite regs is the one that doesn’t allow jet skis until later in the morning. They can screw up calm water for hours straight as they don’t get tired. Typically tubers don’t get out until 10’ish or so in the summer either. What that means to me is if I want a good run then I need to get my butt out early. It may be a bit chilly but it’s what I need to do to get calm water. I would love it if I could live on a lake that had waterskiing wakes only before noon

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Hey Patk, have you ever been on Demontreville lake? One ski boat wreaks havoc on the lake. Heck, that lake can’t support much more than one ski boat safely it is so small.

Very sad. Must be some skiers with money connected to the city board. The current law is fine. Lake Jane is way too small to have watersking all day. This is complete BS.
I can see this working on Lake Elmo but not the others mentioned.

I’m with Patk. I’d love ski-only hours! Dang tubers, jet skiiers, and wakeboarders are always messing up my flat water!

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Jet skis will be allowed to produce wakes before noon but I believe not sunrise as there is a state reg on that one.

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PWCs are only allowed (by state law) 09:30 a.m. till one hour before sunset (although I see that broken all of the time).

Personally, I could care less what Lake Elmo does, but I would not personally want to live on a lake that prohibited me from skiing prior to noon. Morning ski sessions are fabulous and lots of times the only time that you can get decent water to slalom on.

I see both sides of the coin. It’s generally not serious waterskiers causing problems, but I would imagine that expanding the “wake hours” would also let the yahoos out earlier, too.

Pat, I could go for some of this right now!

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Hey Patk, have you ever been on Demontreville lake? One ski boat wreaks havoc on the lake. Heck, that lake can’t support much more than one ski boat safely it is so small.

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Sorry, I don’t have personal experience on that body of water.

If it’s so small that it isn’t safe to run a boat at speed then maybe they are having the wrong discussion. If that’s the case they should be talking about going no wake for tubers, jeskiers, skiers, wakeboarders, and yes even fisherman.

I’m with Wiggum. Give me that flat water all to myself and I’ll be in heaven.

Oh yeah, can I get a walleye chop on a private lake too while I’m wishing and my legs are too tired to ski anymore?

Too many people, not enough time and water to make everyone happy.

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Personally, I could care less what Lake Elmo does, but I would not personally want to live on a lake that prohibited me from skiing prior to noon. Morning ski sessions are fabulous and lots of times the only time that you can get decent water to slalom on.

I see both sides of the coin. It’s generally not serious waterskiers causing problems, but I would imagine that expanding the “wake hours” would also let the yahoos out earlier, too.

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Totally agree on this that serious skiers who’ve also been well taught on boat driving and how to do it the right way generally do not cause issues.

However I’ve seen too many of the less than responsible skiers/drivers out there as well. As we all know you can’t write regs for those that are proficient and those that just think they are.