06-25-1990 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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INTRODUCTION In the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area. 100 large lalces and hundreds of smaller ones provide tremendous opportunities for water-based recreation.i In addition, over 21,000 acres of the Mississippi, Minnesota, and Sl Croix rivers in the metropolitan area offer more opportunities for recreation. Up to now, metropolitan residents have been able to take for granted tl%ir ability to find a lake to use and enjoy. But the situation on metropolitan lakes seems to be deteriorating. Surface use of the lakes continues to grow, leading some people to feel the lakes are becoming overcrowded and unsafe. The water quality of many lakes h^ degraded and others are threatened. Continuing lakeshore development has caukd concern about public access to the lakes and their shoreland. Unfortunately, lake managemeru has been fragmented and mainly oriented towards present issues and interests rather than long-term concerns. Out of the multitude of lake management agencies, none has been charged with overall planning and management responsibility for metropolitan lakes. The map on page 2 shows how waters in the region are organized into 46 watershed management organizations. The committee's charge was to: • recommerKl policies for management of metropolitan lakes that balance lake access, safety, user convenience, and environmental protection. Over a period of eight months, this committee examined current lake issues in the seven-county area and looked ahead to the future of our lakes. We have emphasized the importaiKe of comprehensive, long-range planning for the lakes and stress recogmdon of metropolitan lakes as an interconnected, regional system. While we have focused c lakes in the seven-county area, other regions of the state face similar pressures on their lakes. Somw of our recommendations may apply to these regions as well The first chapter of this report examines surface use issues, such as crowding and safety problems. Chapter 2 looks at questions of boat access to the lakes, while Chapter 3 discusses shoreland access anu development. Chapter 4 examines water quality issues. The final chapter discusses governance of the lakes. There are about IQO lakes of 100 acres or more in size in the seven-county region. The largest is Lake Minnetonka, which is the state's tenth largest inland lake with more than 14,000 acres. Counts vary, but there are about 1,400 more lakes of between 10 and 100 acres in the region.