Published: March 21, 2008 04:15 pm         

Takeline residences look for reprieve

By David Wilfong

Herald-Banner Staff



Residents living on waterfront property adjacent to Lake Ray Hubbard are looking for a reprieve from the recently adopted takeline ordinances which prohibit such personal amenities as lawn furnitured from being kept by the lake.

In the past three weeks, the city staff has sent out 141 notices of violations to the takeline ordinance for residences which had such amenities as picnic tables, lawn furniture and hanging swings located next to the lake. It was pointed out that 107 of those were located along Lakeside Drive. City staff sent multiple notices for certain violations because the surveying was done by boat and the exact owners could not be determined.

At issue is the fact that most of these were located on lots that did not have sufficient frontage to qualify for renting the takeline area according to existing ordinances.

“I addressed this issue at the time (of adopting the existing takeline ordinance),” said Councilmember Stephen Straughn pointing to a staff-provided photograph of a hanging swing currently located in Lakeside Village. “That's nice, and the area is kept clean. According to the ordinance it has to come down ... and that's ridiculous.”

Councilmember Margo Nielsen stated, “I would like to have a moratorium on enforcement of those letters we sent out.” She added that the moratorium would only apply to those properties that are unleasable. Nielsen stated that the concern of the council had generally applied to boat docks and the lakeside storage of small boats which is prohibited by the City of Dallas which owns the lake.

Rockwall Director of Planning Robert LaCroix stated that he had been told by Dallas staff that Dallas did not want small furniture on the shoreline that could end up getting swept into the lake.

“I don't want to disparage the City of Dallas, but I don't think they really care,” Nielsen replied. “And the horse is out of the barn in a lot of these cases.”

The council voted 6-0 to reactivate the takeline committee and review the ordinances to see if there could be some allowances made for small amentities in the takeline for properties too small to lease the shoreline under current provisions.