# Spring Lake public access fight



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Access point remains open despite opposition

http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1136389506304380.xml&coll=8

Wednesday, January 04, 2006 By Terry Judd CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER 
A Spring Lake access point at the end of Alden Street will remain a kayak launch and fishing area despite demands by neighbors and a condominium association that these activities be prohibited. 

The Spring Lake Village Council Tuesday agreed to five compromise motions designed to appease privacy and safety concerns expressed by residents of Alden Street but failed to remove a kayak launch sign or to impose a no fishing ordinance for the access point. Neighbors said they would return in the spring to try to eliminate kayak launching and fishing from the area. 

"The action taken by the council tonight is fine except they did not take the kayaks out," said Calvin J. Dykstra, president of the Cot&eacute; La Mer Inc. condominium association. "Many of our people are in Florida right now and will be back in the spring. What the council did do didn't go far enough."

Rick Ritter, whose home at 417 Buena Vista lies adjacent to the access point, said he is concerned with inability of narrow Alden Street to commodity parked cars and the liability he faces by people using his Spring Lake dock. 

"It's my dock, but people think it's the village's," he said. "The way it is, I should be selling them the worms." 

The controversy stemmed from recent changes made by the village to encourage public access to the northern end of Alden Street, which dead ends into Spring Lake. Changes included listing the area as a kayak launch on recently installed "wayfinder" signs and the removal of a no parking sign near the water and Ritter's property. 

In addition, the village's Community Recreation Plan lists as a goal developing a canoe/kayak launch area as a major goal. Neighbors of Alden, Scenic View and Parkhurst streets submitted petitions with 49 signatures asking the village council: 

To remove from the Community Recreation Plan any planned changes for the ends of Alden and Park streets. 

To remove the path for launching kayaks. 

To reinstall "No Parking" signs near the lake area. 

Dykstra, who was involved in the petition effort, said residents had privacy and safety concerns. He said the village council in 1989 adopted a "neighbors' plan" for the area calling for landscaping, ornamental trees and planters. Instead, the village has installed rip-rap and an access path. 

Ed Vogt, 400 Lakeview Court, charged the village with violating state Department of Environmental Quality rules by constructing an access path in an area below Spring Lake's ordinary high water mark. 

On Tuesday, the council addressed two concerns. It authorized a "No Parking" sign be reinstalled near the access area, which would result in a loss of one parking space. In addition, it removed the proposed kayak launch from the Community Recreation plan. 

Councilman Jim Palma, who recently viewed the area, agreed it is not an ideal spot for a kayak launch or fishing. But he said there is a need for access points to Spring Lake for residents who do not live on the water. 

"I do appreciate citizens' needs for an outlet to the water and to utilize street ends as a real asset if done in a proper way." 

But Dykstra questioned the idea that residents do not have adequate access. 

"You have 2,800 people living on a peninsula and water is all over the place," he said. "To say they don't have access to the water does not make any sense."


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