GLUE Members Report 4-6-09

 

Shoreline Management Plan: Nothing new to report since GRDA’s response to a request for clarification by FERC. (see last report)

 

Shoreline Easement & Licensing Legislation by Cox:   Representative Doug Cox has a bill in the works to address the complex property boundary issues on Grand Lake. The bill is being co-sponsored in the Senate by John Ford from Bartlesville. The language of the bill grants a license to adjacent property owners to the 750’ lake elevation. The only requirement of the adjacent property owner would be the maintenance of the easement property between the actual property line and the 750’ elevation.

 

Although the initiative made it out of committee by a 7-2 margin, it was killed by the Speaker of the House. It may be reconsidered during the next session. One by-product of our commitment to support Representative Cox in an effort to simplify all the problems associated with the Grand Lake project boundary issue was a good reason to take a closer look at the GRDA/FERC license issued in April of 1992.

 

After a lengthy process of downloading the license from the FERC web site, I’m of the opinion the license empowers the GRDA to resolve most project property use issues related to non-commercial requests without FERC involvement. For those attorneys within our ranks, I’m going to paste the four pages relative to article 410 in the GRDA/FERC license below for your possible review. It certainly appears the language grants the authority the power to permit non-commercial piers, landings, boat docks, or similar structures and facilities that can accommodate no more than ten watercraft at a time and where said facility is intended to serve single family-type dwellings in paragraph “B.” And if you read paragraph “D,” it appears there might even be authority granted to sell small portions of property with the project boundary. This could possibly provide a vehicle to solve those situations where encroachments have occurred.

 

I’d certainly entertain your thoughts since Representative Cox and yours truly have a meeting scheduled with GRDA to discuss these issues on Friday. The purpose of the meeting was originally intended to discuss the real estate issues related to the bill introduced by Cox, but now that the initiative has been scuttled I’m hopeful we can discuss possible non legislative ways to address the issue. I plan on having the GRDA/FERC license in hand.

 

Although I’m on record supporting GRDA as the landlord of our lake, it certainly appears much of the blame GRDA has placed on FERC may represent more of a convenience than reality.

 

GRDA April Board Meeting: This month’s meeting of the GRDA board is this Wednesday and I plan on attending although there doesn’t appear to be anything earth shaking on the agenda. There is one item I’ve not seen before which reads like this:

 

l. Report of Recommendations by Hearing Officer Related to Administrative Proceedings Concerning Private and Commercial Dock Permit Revocations:

Jahnke

(1) Private Dock Permit No. PG 5969 in the Name of John L. Nair

(2) Private Dock Permit No. PG 522 in the Name of Richard S. Warner

(3) Private Dock Permit No. PG 6043 in the Name of Tony and Cathey Armstrong.

 

I’ll issue our next report following Friday’s meeting with the authority and will include anything significant from the Wednesday board meeting.

 

Cheers