After getting complaints about tree cutting and lake-rule violations, officials from several agencies met last week with the staff of the N.C. Community Sailing & Rowing, the boating center headquartered at the county’s Blythe Landing park.
Officials determined that the boating center had permission to take down trees where it plans to install a 110-foot dock on Lake Norman, with a 117-foot arm running parallel to the shoreline, as well as a boardwalk linking the dock to the rest of the center, according to Erin Culbert, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy, one of the agencies that attended the meeting.
But the center had parked mooring buoys and sailboats in the cove west of Blythe Landing in violation of Lake Norman Marine Commission rules, according to Culbert. Officer Doug Lambert, head of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Lake Enforcement Unit, said he asked the center to comply with the rules of the lake or face citations.
The center moved the boats on Tuesday, March 22, Culbert said, and the center removed all the mooring buoys by Friday, March 25, according to Will Paschal, the sailing center’s waterfront director. The center is storing its sailboats on trailers at Blythe Landing.
Jack Stanford, a member of the board of the Lookout Point Homeowners Association, whose members have homes on the cove east of Blythe Landing, confirmed the mooring buoys were removed from the lake Friday. He said he hopes the move signals a new beginning for better relations between the center and its neighbors.
“I have no objections to the sailing center,” Stanford said. “But they haven’t followed the rules the rest of us follow. My fault with the center is that it has shown a total disregard for the neighbors.”
Duke Energy’s Culbert said her company, which owns the lake bottom, is waiting to make sure all agencies are satisfied with the changes before issuing the dock construction permit.
The sailing center already has permission for the project from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which licenses Duke Energy’s dams.
To install the dock, the sailing center has to go “far beyond only replanting vegetation,” Culbert said. “A few examples would be to install Pothonatory Warbler nesting boxes, wood duck nesting boxes, shallow-water and deep-water fish attractors and shoreline plantings.
The center hopes to get its dock permit in a few weeks and complete construction in a month.
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