Updated Thursday, Feb. 19,  5:12 p.m.

The Lake Davidson Working Committee, comprised of local officials from Davidson and Mooresville, will hold another public meeting later this month in hopes of reaching a compromise on a two-town agreement that will accommodate all kinds of uses on the lake, from power boating and water skiing to canoeing and kayaking.

Committee chair and Davidson commissioner Margo Williams said the meeting is scheduled Feb. 26 at 9 a.m. at Davidson Town Hall.  (Update: This is an revision of the originally reported tentative meeting date).

The working committee is trying to hammer out an “interlocal agreement” that would include regulations to deal with growth, development and increased use of the lake.

The March meeting will be a followup to one last Thursday, Feb. 12, at Davidson Town Hall that included more than two dozen citizens.

NO CONSENSUS ON WATER USES

Some officials had hoped to reach consensus at the Feb. 12 meeting on a map that would allow competing uses to co-exist on the small, 341-acre body of water, which lies east of I-77 between Mooresville and Davidson.  But Ms. Williams said Monday the map discussion reached no conclusions, so another meeting will be required.

“There were several requests that we not rush through it last Thursday,” she said. “People were talking and giving their points of view, and wanted a little more time to do that.” So that discussion will continue at the next meeting, she said.

Frank Rader, a Mooresville commissioner and working group member, said another meeting is needed. “It will be a continuation of the Feb. 12 meeting,” Mr. Rader said. “We did not get into the second part of the agenda, which was the mapping portion. We got into it, but we timed out.”

DavidsonNews.net was unable to have a reporter at the meeting. But the Mooresville Tribune reported that lake users who attended engaged in a “heated and unresolved debate” over no-wake zones and lake uses.

News reports also said Miles Atkins, a Mooresville commissioner who represented his town on the working committee, has resigned. He had walked out of a previous meeting when he learned it would be a closed session.

Mitch Abraham, another Mooresville commissioner, sat in on Thursday’s meeting and appears likely to replace Mr. Atkins. He would serve alongside Mr. Rader.

Davidson’s representatives are Ms. Williams and Commissioner Bill Johnson. The committee also includes planners and other staff from the two towns.

WANTED: COMPROMISE

Ms. Williams said she hopes the next meeting will generate a compromise on water-based recreational issues.

“Then it will be time for the committee to talk about what we’ve heard, to look at what we’ve seen, and see if there is something we can agree to that makes sense,” Ms. Williams said.

Right now, the lake is open to all uses, though new development and an increasing number of residents around the lake have prompted officials from the two towns to consider new regulations. In January, they proposed a revised 5-year agreement that would require no-construction zones around the lake and ban new individual boat docks – requiring instead that new developments have community docks. Davidson also agreed to seek protection for an island in the lake by having it designated as a wildlife sanctuary.

Davidson officials also had been pushing Mooresville to agree to restrictions on the size of boat motors – rules Davidson already has. But in a major compromise, Davidson agreed not to seek that language in the agreement.

That left the two towns to work on a compromise on water-based uses, by drawing up a map that would specify no-wake zones, water skiing and power boating areas and areas for kayaking, canoeing and other passive uses.

At last week’s meeting, Doug Oldenburg, a resident of Davidson’s Spinnaker Cove lakeside neighborhood, listened to people stating long-held positions, and offered a compromise. Mr. Oldenburg is a member of an informal group called Friends of Lake Davidson that has pushed for tighter regulations on power boating. On Thursday, he proposed a series of lines in the lake that would create zones for both power boating, water skiing and passive uses.

“I said that we, the Friends of Lake Davidson, realize that compromise is necessary,” Mr. Oldenburg told DavidsonNews.net Monday. “In a democracy, when there’s a conflict within a community, we need to work on a compromise.”

His proposal called for no changes in the current use on the west side of the lake, near the highway, where a water skiing school has a slalom course and large boats typically run.

He proposed a line across the north side of the lake’s island, roughly along the Iredell-Mecklenburg county line, that would separate the rest of the lake into north and south. South of the line would be reserved for passive watercraft – such as canoes and kayaks – and boats with motors less than 10 horsepower. North of the line, boats with larger motors would be allowed.

Some homeowners on the south side of the line own boats with larger motors. Mr. Oldenburg proposed that those boat owners be allowed to cruise into the power boating northern end of the lake with no wakes. His idea also is to preserve some coves at the north end of the lake passive watercraft and no large motors.

“We thought that was a fair compromise, because the vision of the lake for the Davidson community is different from the vision of the lake for the Mooresville community,” Mr. Oldenburg explained.

The working committee took no action on the proposal, though Ms. Williams said Monday she hopes to resume the discussion on March 5.  “I heard some very reasonable and moderate voices suggest some things that reflected all the different uses and reflected them in such a way that everyone could do everything they wanted (on the lake). … I think we’ve come a long way, at least those of us on the committee, hearing all the voices and establishing that all the uses are viable.”

MARINE COMMISSION QUESTIONS

Still at issue is whether the towns have the right to draw up an agreement governing the lake. A representative from the Lake Norman Marine Commission who attended last week’s meeting raised questions about their jurisdiction.

But Ms. Williams said Monday that the towns were we were encouraged to proceed last summer after conversations with people on the Lake Norman Marine Commission.  “They really started us on this process,” she said.

She said she believes the commission will be willing to look at any agreement the two towns come up with together. “Compromise is a laudable goal,” she said. “We don’t know if we’ll get there, but we’re certainly going to try.”

LINKS

Feb. 13, 2009, Mooresville Tribune, “Lake Davidson group’s progress is slow, not always harmonious.”

Feb. 11, 2009,Lake Norman Times, “Atkins resigns from Lake Davidson Working Group.”

Town of Davidson Lake Davidson information page, with documents, and other background on the committee’s work and meetings.