Plans to oust lakeside residents causing waves
By
M.S. Enkoji -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, May 30, 2005
LAKE BERRYESSA - On a day the sun turned the water's surface into a sea
of diamonds, the federal manager of Lake Berryessa scanned the shoreline from a
briskly paced pontoon boat. A breeze barely ruffled the water. Just as in any
eye of a hurricane. "There's a lot of potential here," said Pedro Lucero, park
manager at Lake Berryessa for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. There also are a
lot of people, rooted along the shoreline in 1,300 mobile homes and travel
trailers of mixed vintage, people who have rented their lakeside spots through
long-term contracts with the federal government. The contracts expire in three
or four years. They have to go. Most of the mobile homes are vacation or
weekend places. A few resort employees live year round, such as Rose Stubbs, a
30-year resident of Lake Berryessa Marina Resort. "I just don't know what I'm
going to do," said the 82-year-old as she wielded pruning shears in the narrow
garden outside her beloved double-wide mobile home. Before her husband died 21
years ago, the two would head out on a boat to watch the sun set and pick out
deer and other wildlife along the shore. The estimates she's gotten to move her
1987 model came in at about $10,000. "I worry and then I don't worry," she
said. "If I have to go, I'll go." Peter Kilkus, director of Citizens to Protect
Lake Berryessa, argues that mobile home owners typically renting a site for
$400 to $500 a month contribute to the lake's economic health and should be
part of the lake's future. "Mobile homes are a valid use," Kilkus said. Those
itching for the mobile home owners to go, however, say that clearing the
shoreline will create a diverse recreational asset out of the man-made lake.
Now, motorized boats, including Jet Skis and other personal watercraft,
have virtually free rein on the lake, which some believe discourages kayakers
and other paddle sports. "This is a motorboat lake," said Carol Kunze,
executive director of Berryessa Trails and Conservation, a nonprofit pushing
for more hiking and non-motorized watercraft use. "What we want is parity for
nature recreation." As director of the ad hoc group of mobile home owners and
resort owners, Kilkus agreed with her on one thing: Berryessa is a premier
motorboat lake. But he said neither the mobile homes nor the motorboats are
obstacles to a broader future. The Bureau of Reclamation has concluded
differently. The bureau, which manages contracts with seven resorts along the
lake, is searching for a new contractor to provide recreational services such
as boat launches, campgrounds and boat rentals that would replace the clusters
of mobile homes. Since 2000, the bureau has been exploring options for the lake
and gathering public input. It is expected to choose a plan by fall, said Jeff
McCracken, a spokesman for the bureau. Though the specifics are still unclear,
one thing seems certain: The mobile homes will go, he said. The focus would
shift toward short-term visitors by expanding campgrounds, restaurants and
picnic grounds, by developing more trails and by zoning the water's surface.
Kilkus, who works with his son's personal watercraft racing business, said
resort owners have countered with a proposal to invest $42 million to reduce
mobile homes by 15 percent and boost short-term uses such as restaurants and
camp sites.
In a 2004 letter to the bureau, Napa County's Executive
Officer Nancy Watt concluded the lake brings in $427,312 a year from various
tax sources but costs the county $1,124,297 in law enforcement and fire
protection costs. The Napa County Board of Supervisors reiterated to the bureau
in an April letter that the county is convinced that greater public access and
diversity of use at the lake would balance the books. Not too long after
Monticello Dam ballooned Putah Creek into a 19,000-acre lake in 1957, visitors
began anchoring trailers at campsites, which were never intended as permanent
sites, McCracken said. Trees were planted; decks were built. "It just evolved
like that," he said. Napa County, the early manager of the lake, and the
bureau, both concede things should never have gotten out of hand. Now, an
eclectic collection of mobile homes is sprinkled on the lake's southern and
eastern rim, some perched over the water, some jutting from slopes. Water
quality and fire agencies have complained of sewage problems and roads too
narrow for fire engines to navigate, McCracken said. Sewage problems were
resolved partly by closing restrooms and replacing them with portable toilets
so some sewage could be hauled out. Kilkus, who bought a mobile home at Steele
Park Resort about eight years ago, said the resorts have cleaned up violations
in the last four years. "No one has denied some of these places have fallen
into disrepair," he said. One of the resorts, Pleasure Cove Resort, was closed
recently by the bureau after the owner died and a new owner failed to meet a
deadline to post a $100,000 performance bond, said McCracken. As Lucero motors
by Pleasure Cove, houseboats lap in the boat slips. Chuck Vaughn, manager of
Lake Berryessa Marina Resort, said the business is in limbo. Without definite
plans, resort owners don't know if they can bid for the new contracts, he said,
standing on the porch of the resort's general store. The 47-acre resort offers
300 boat slips, a watercraft rental business, cabins, recreational vehicle
sites and 146 mobile home sites. In the last three years, the resort cleared 41
mobile home sites at a cost of $2,000 to $5,000 each, he said. He understands
all the mobile homes have to go but wonders whether a redesigned resort would
pencil out. So he waits for final word from the bureau: "We're just in a kind
of holding pattern," he said.
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