Bauer opposes boathouse regs

The Fund for Lake George is opposing boathouse regulations proposed by the Adirondack Park Agency, saying they will do nothing to benefit water quality of Lake George and might prove counterproductive.

Among other things, the regulations would outlaw roofed docks, which are popular around Lake George.

“Decks on roofed docks will be transferred to the shoreline, which will frustrate efforts to encourage robust shoreline vegetated buffers, smaller lawn and impervious areas, decreases in the use of seawalls, and improved stormwater management,” Peter Bauer, the fund’s executive director, wrote the APA in a letter dated January 17. “A deck over a roofed dock now enables the opportunity for a landowner to improve land use practices that protect water quality. The elimination of the roof deck dock or creation of a variance process, for this type of boathouse/dock creates an impediment to improving shoreline water quality protection practices.”

Bauer also said the APA Act fails to adequately address other threats to the lake, such as stormwater runoff, leaking septic systems, shoreline cutting, and hillside development. “The weakness of the APA Act to provide adequate water quality protections is one of a number of factors that has contributed to the steady decline in the water quality of Lake George,” Bauer wrote.

Click the links below to read the letter to the APA and the fund’s news release.

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Fund letter

Fund news release