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r CMP Part 4A# Trapsportatlon Plan LAKE ACCESS PRESERyATIOS AND MANAGFMFNr With more than 40 miles of Lake Minnetonka shoreline and nearly 5 miles of additional lake shorelines, Orono ’s lakes provide a significant recreational resource for all Orono residents, not just for those who own property abutting the lakes. This value was long ago realized by the City fathers, as well as by early land developers. In order to provide lake access for the general public, as well as to provide for fire department access to the lake as a water source, a number of lake access corridors were created as the shoreland developed. These typically are platted, dedicated right-of- ways leading from the local road system to the shoreline, and are commonly from 16' to 66' in width. The historic level of use of these right-of-ways (sometimes referred to as “fire lanes" or “lake access roads") ranges from minimal to year-* ■'und. Certain of these corridors have been maintained by the City for local swimming beaches or as winter snowmobile and ice-fishing accesses. Certain acces.ses are provided with docks for fishing, and some have ramp areas suitable ibr launching a small boat. However, most do not have designated parking available, and are primarily intended to serve the neighborhood rather than the general public. A number of these access corridors liave steep topography and experience a relatively low level of usage. The value of these corridon to the general public both now and in the future is too great to be measured. While an access corridor or fire lane may appear to an adjacent landowner as abandoned, there may well be a future public need for that corridor that may not be obvious today. The Minnesota Supreme Court in 1944 (Application of Baldwin, et al No. 33721 for vacation of a platted dedicated lake access road) upheld the value of retaining the public’s right to access the lake. In an excerpt from the findings of the Court: '' I’hls court requires no proof that Lake Minnetonka is a priceless heritage of the people of Minnesota, to be preu-v.-a and passed on to posterity. Judicial notice wit! be taken of the fact that it is one of the most precious ft nets 1.1 the string of Ten Thousand Lakes of which Minnesota is so Justly proud... Because of its wide expanse ohtf proximity to our metropoiitan areas, it is much frequented ana used for boating, fishing, picnicking and bathing ■ perhaps more than any other lake in the stale, its shore line of nearly 100 miles Is dotted with peimanent homes and summer cottages, not only at its waters edge, but extending far back from the shore. But the use of the take is not confined to dwellers on its shore or nearby. During the summer season especially. It is upon thousands of urbanites, not so fortunate as to possess a lake home, who -young and oldalue - seek its shores and waters for diverse recreational purposes. To those who do not indulge in active re-creation, it affords the opportunity of communing with nature at its best iilth the increase in the permanent City of Orono Cominunily Management Plan Scpicaiber 2000 Page 4A-32