Over 60% of survey respondents are in favor of forming a Chautauqua Lake District. The Chautauqua Lake Protection and Rehabilitation Agency and the Chautauqua County Department of Planning and Development shared the results of a community survey at a meeting Tuesday. CCIDA Executive Director Mark Geise said 15-hundred people responded to the survey. He said the Lake Protection and Rehabilitation Agency will vote next month on moving forward after reviewing the survey in more detail,
“If they choose to continue, then the next steps would be forming a work plan, developing a work plan, but before we can even do that we’ve got to figure out how much would it cost, where’s the money come from and what’s the scope of the work for that work plan?”
Geise said there’s a lot to be determined in the work plan on how lake district fees could be used,
“We’re talking about, you know, weed harvesting, more studying of the lake, understanding the science better, the use of herbicides, preservation, all of those things that possibly that we’re talking about and to improve the quality of the Lake.”
63% of the survey respondents support the charging of fees for boats on the Lake if all legal impediments to such fees were resolved.
A full summary of the survey results can be found on the County Department of Planning and Development’s website at planningchautauqua.com.
You state that over 60% of respondents are in favor, but about 75% of respondents were lakefront property owners and property owners with lake access. I don’t think the public outside of those directly benefitting from the lake even know about this new tax.