Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Edgewater RV Resort opened this week, and its developers are ready to talk about the marina they hope to build on Foster Lake by next spring.
Anyone interested in the proposed marina will have the chance to learn everything available to date about the project and then talk about it with the developers and later the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said Steve Leith, one of the three partners in the project and manager of the resort.
The developers of the Edgewater RV Resort and Marina, which is planned as a destination resort, are planning a public meeting for May 29 at the Jim Riggs Community Center, 870 18th Ave.
“I guess the big motivator is we’ve been out here now for five years,” Leith said. Plans have moved along enough and they have enough information to share it with the public, he said.
The developers planned the project in three phases, Leith said. Those include the nearly completed townhouses, the 45-space RV park and the marina.
“The marina really generates, I think, a lot of interest,” Leith said. “Until now, we haven’t been able to identify any real substantive details on the plan.”
The developers, Foster Lake Investments, which includes Leith, Dan McGarry and Dennis Gibson, have been working with the Corps for about 3½ years, and now they’re close to completing a plan and can talk about it with a high degree of confidence, Leith said.
The Corps will host its own public meeting and public comment period later this year, Leith said. Providing an informational meeting prior to that will give members of the public time to create informed opinions and comments about the project.
Part of the informational meeting is the developers just being good neighbors, Leith said. The marina “potentially is a very big piece for the community, especially looking at all the discussion about downtown.”
Leveraging the value of the lake can only help, he said. At the end of the day, it’s a marina being built on a leased public resource, though, and the public needs to be involved in the process.
If everything goes according to plan, Leith said, Foster Lake Investments will have permits and start construction of the marina by the end of the year.
The work will have to take place within a specific window, ideally from December to February, Leith said. In March, the project would start running into restrictions based on fisheries needs.
If work is completed on time, the marina would be open next spring, Leith said. The marina will be open all year and would have no docks high and dry.
In the current design, a gangway will extend to two sections of slips running parallel to the shore. The half of the section closest to shore will be too shallow for use during the winter, but the remaining slips would remain in service.
During the summer, the marina will have 150 to 160 slips available. During the winter, it will have 110 to 115 slips available.
The first row of slips is approximately 100 feet off shore. In the plans, it runs about 100 yards toward the dam along the rocky shore. The west end of the marina will be approximately even with the end of the existing tree line along the shelf.
The grassy area of the shelf is a popular swimming hole during the summer.
The marina will prevent swimming from shore directly across from it, but it fishing there will remain viable, Leith said.
The marina would extend about 300 feet into the lake, he said. How that will affect the 200-foot no-wake zone for boats isn’t clear yet. Foster Lake Investments is working with the Marine Board on that issue. The marina is largely protected from wake.
The slips would be available for rent to anyone on a daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal basis, Leith said. Some slips will be reserved for the shorter rental periods to give visitors to the resort an opportunity to rent.
The marina will also reserve 12 to 14 courtesy slips for boaters who need fuel or want to go ashore for lunch, dinner or supplies.
Around the rest of the project, all but one of the townhouses are constructed. Foster Lake Investments has one more three-unit building to construct.
The RV Park is finished and open this week. The developers hope to break ground on the commercial building that will be part of the park this fall and have it open by spring.
The building will house an office for the RV park and marina. It will include a large open reception area, with a high ceiling, exposed beams and comfortable seating, likely with an espresso stand and activities, such as wine and beer tasting.
The first floor also will house a laundry room, restrooms and retail space for a convenience store. The convenience store will sell supplies for campers, boaters and fishermen and a small grocery area for campers and residents of the townhouses, which are primarily second homes to their owners.
The middle floor will include a restaurant and lounge, likely with conference and meeting space; and the top floor will include six to eight condominiums.
“We’re trying to create something we would like, and we would enjoy,” Leith said.