Lake Powell One Step Closer to Being Restored

Friday, November 05, 2010

Residents living near Lake Powell in James City County are one step closer to restoring the waterway and paying for it themselves, now that the lake owners are on board with the plan.

Floyd Powell bought the lake and attached dam in the 1920s and his descendents have owned it ever since. After the dam failed in 1999 and again in 2006, the owners began considering their options in regards to the property. In 2007, nearby land owners offered to tax themselves at a higher rate to allow the county to repair the dam and maintain the lake. The owners agreed to the plan, but then changed their mind. According to James City County Supervisor John McGlennon, they have changed their mind again and now support the plan, which will be before the supervisors for consideration by year’s end.

Since the 2006 dam breach, the lake has remained partially drained and trees, shrubs and invasive species have been growing along the remaining muddy area (visible from the bridge along Jamestown Road).

Several homes that used to boast waterfront property now overlook the overgrown area and homeowners have seen a reduction in the values of their homes by around 17 percent, according to homeowner Sandy Duvall. Duvall is spearheading the Save Lake Powell citizen group, leading the charge to create a new tax district to purchase, restore and maintain the lake.

She told WYDaily in a previous interview that her property has not only lost value, but now overlooks a mosquito-infested swampland strewn with trash and dead fish carcasses. “People who bought waterfront homes on the lake that’s been here 200 years don’t expect it to ever go away,” she said. But it did.

The Army Corps of Engineers recently denied the family’s application to make the area a wetlands mitigation bank, so now the lake owners have agreed to support the bid to create a lake improvement tax district.

There are approximately 60 properties that are identified as lake-adjacent, according to McGlennon. Of those, 51 are not owned by the lake owners. From the list of 51 property owners, about 44 or 45 have signed a petition asking supervisors to create the new tax district, he said Thursday.

“I think the property owners have put a considerable amount of work into this and have presented a proposal to the board that deserves consideration,” said McGlennon, who has been working with lake owners and property owners for months to help reach a compromise.

The additional tax homeowners are requesting on their properties would go towards paying to reconstruct the failed dam and purchase the lake. The residents are requesting that the county purchase the lake with the tax proceeds.

The Army Corps of Engineers said if no action is taken by early July, 2011, the lake would be deemed permanent wetlands, so McGlennon says the homeowners are working under that deadline.

He expects the plan to go before supervisors in December.