Foes present water issues in Boardwalk project

Many wetland issues need to be resolved before the Boardwalk at Whitefish Lake resort development should be allowed to move forward, opponents of the project maintained last week during a third round of discussion on the controversial project.

Public comments on the 41-acre development off Wisconsin Avenue had been cut short by the late hour of a November meeting of the Planning Board, but a public hearing on Boardwalk was reconvened last Thursday.

Amy Chadwick of Watershed Consulting, hired by the newly organized Friends of Wisconsin Avenue Wetlands neighborhood group, gave a detailed PowerPoint presentation that mapped out Whitefish Lake data collected by Mike Koopal of the Whitefish Lake Institute. Joe Maletta, John Porterfield and Lavonna Bowers also helped with the presentation.

"It was a good presentation, a lot of information," Whitefish Planning Director Bob Horne said. "We asked a lot of questions."

The opponents' study showed that Monk's Bay on Whitefish Lake, in the vicinity of the proposed resort, has the highest concentrations of volatile organic compounds of four locations sampled on the lake. Nearby Viking Creek also shows signs of chronic nutrient loading with a negative effect to the Monk's Bay area, Whitefish Lake Institute data revealed.

Another concern is the city's pumping plant in Mountain Harbor. The city generally uses the lake-water supply in late summer as a supplement to the Haskill Basin water source, and Boardwalk opponents think that more development in that area would jeopardize water quality.

Opponents have maintained all along that the Boardwalk property, rich with wetlands, is a vital drainage link to Whitefish Lake that must be preserved.

Chadwick said some areas within the proposed development area once were considered wetlands but are now deemed uplands because of disturbance and drought.

Still needed, she said, are a stormwater analysis and complete understanding of how fill dirt on the Boardwalk property will affect not only water quality but also neighboring properties.

Beyond the water issues, the presentation stepped the Planning Board through wildlife concerns and traffic-safety issues.

Developer Bayard Dominick was absent from the hearing, but his team of consultants was on hand.

The public hearing was continued to the board's Feb. 16 meeting, at which time the developer will present final analyses on wildlife and water impacts.

In other business, the Planning Board:

-Approved the expansion of Casey's Bar to include a cabooselike diner to the south that will seat 75.

-OK'd Robert Pero's four-lot Mountain Pines Phase II subdivision north of Lion Mountain Road and approved a zone change from suburban residential to a one-family district.

-Approved an amendment to the city's architectural design review standards to require design review for two-, three- and four-family residential structures and single-family structures in any commercial zoning district.

-Passed amendments to clarify the purpose and intent of planned-unit development overlay zones.