PLANS FOR NEW LAKE JAMES ACREAGE INCLUDE MORE PLACES TO SWIM, CAMP, BIKE AND HIKE
Sunday, November 5, 2006
By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer
LAKE JAMES -- A few months ago, the summer heat lured thousands of vacationers and residents to the Lake James State Park swimming area.
But large crowds often forced people to abandon plans for swimming in the 120-foot-long and 120-foot- wide space, said Tim Benton, superintendent of the park.
Now, overcrowding might soon be a thing of the past.
The N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation recently adopted a master plan for the 2,915 acres added to Lake James State Park in a 2004 purchase from Crescent Resources, Duke Energy's development arm, said state parks spokesman Charlie Peek.
The plan, he said, breaks down a long-term recreational development strategy into three phases and will bring a new swimming beach, camping facilities, fishing and boating opportunities and more than 30 miles of hiking and biking trails to the park, which straddles Burke and McDowell counties, in upcoming years.
In November 2004, the state bought nearly 3,000 acres from Crescent Resources for $18 million, Peek said.
The purchase increased the size of Lake James State Park from 606 acres on the lake's south shore to 3,521 acres, Peek said, creating the largest waterfront park in the state. The acquisition allowed state officials to conserve more than 24 miles of shoreline on the 6,500-acre lake.
This followed a settlement between Burke County and Crescent over land use on the lake, according to Observer archives, and Crescent still plans to develop subdivisions on much of the remaining land.
A year later, the state hired LandDesign, a Charlotte landscape architecture firm, to help create the plan for the expanded park. The firm started by holding public hearings in counties bordering the lake to gauge what recreational improvements residents wanted, according to Observer archives.
Since then, Peek said, state and park officials have formulated a plan that incorporates an array of recreational activities into the expanded park.
Susie Hamrick Jones, executive director of Foothills Conservancy in Morganton, said the group has been working on the project with officials and said she's happy the state is about to start developing it.
"People certainly have needed a place to go at Lake James for a long time," she said. "(Putting) a kayak or fishing boat in and spending the day exploring a wilderness lake is possible now. In the past, the shoreline was all private."
The first phase of the project, which state officials are hoping to begin in mid-2007, focuses on the Paddy Creek Peninsula on the lake's north shore, Peek said.
Adding a swim beach six times larger than the current swimming area on the south shore and a bathhouse will be the centerpiece.
Peek said he hopes swimmers will be able to take the first plunge into the new, 700-foot-long swimming area by summer 2008.
"It would be the best of all possible worlds if that could happen," Peek said.
Benton said phase one also includes building a 2-mile access road from N.C. 126, which would lead to an interim visitor center, two additional 12-table picnic shelters, a maintenance facility, a ranger station, a concession area and a parking lot with nearly 400 spots, which quadruples the current parking area on the south shore.
The estimated $7.6 million price tag for the first phase will come from the state's Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, which also helps pay for projects at several N.C. parks, Peek said.
Construction dates for phases 2 and 3 haven't been set, and Peek said the next steps in the project won't start until phase 1 is completed.
"This seems slow if you want to go out on the lake or fish, but we're moving at a good speed," he said of the project, which has required the state to secure funding and to work with Burke County, the state legislature, environmental groups and residents to come up with a plan.
Phase 2, Peek said, is also concentrated on the Paddy Creek Peninsula and will bring three kinds of camping options, including primitive, tent and RV, or recreational vehicle, sites.
"It's pretty much a full slate of what campers want," he said.
Peek said LandDesign estimated that phase 2 will cost about $6.9 million and phase three $1.6 million.
Once phase 2 is finished, developers will move northeast to the Long Arm Peninsula to begin phase 3, which will add boating camp facilities, Benton said.
"Boating is one of the biggest draws," he said. "We pretty much just need to get water to them."
Phase 3 will also add ranger stations parkwide and will expand the Paddy Creek Peninsula visitor center to include a museum, auditorium and classrooms, Benton said.
Maynard Taylor, vice chairman of the Burke County Board of Commissioners, said he hopes the expansion will bring a spike in tourism to the area, which has been hard hit by factory closings in recent years.
"The area will become a real tourist attraction for people to come for recreation and relaxation," he said. "It will be beneficial for hundreds of years."
Donna Davis and her husband, a retired environmental project specialist, moved to a subdivision on Lake James' north shore from South Port four years ago and attended public meetings when they heard about the expansion.
"I didn't want to see this get overdeveloped," she said of the neighborhood, which includes a view of the lake from her front porch.
The Davises, avid canoeists, said they're looking forward to spending more time on the lake and will likely use the new picnic areas. They lived in Kentucky a few decades earlier, and said they were hoping for a repeat of the way park officials developed the state's wilderness lakes.
"We were so glad to see that start to happen," Davis said. "We're hoping to have the next class act here."
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