SJ City to Take Up No Wake Zone

While most folks have put their boats into winter storage or dry dock by now, summer boating on the St. Joseph River will be hotly contested at Monday night's St. Joseph City Commission meeting when City Commissioners are being asked to extend the "No Wake Zone" further upstream from its current location, much as St. Joseph Township Trustees have been asked to take up.

Robert Kincaid is a member of the Riverview Marina Condominium Association 221. He and his fellow boat slip owners and renters adjacent to Pier 1000 Marina in St. Joseph Charter Township on the east side of the river across the river from the south end of St. Joe's Marina Island, are lobbying for extension of the No Wake Zone an extra 176 yards upstream.

St. Joseph City Manager John Hodgson says that city staff members have contacted the Michigan Department of Natural Resources regarding the issue and he's telling city commissioners that the process has several steps, and because the river in that vicinity is shared by both the city and the township, both communities have to go through the same procedures. 

In documents preparatory to Monday night's meeting Hodgson makes several points to the commission:
 

• Each community considers whether it believes the matter needs to be investigated, and if willing to hold a public hearing, sets a hearing date, advertises in the newspaper at least 10 days in advance of the hearing, and holds a hearing. (We inquired about the possibility of holding a joint City-Township public hearing so both bodies hear the same evidence and so interested members of the public would not have to attend two sessions, but MDNR indicated this was not allowed, the communities must hold separate hearings.)
• After holding a public hearing, each elected body would consider whether to ask that MDNR hold its own public hearings.
• If both public bodies requested MDNR to hold its own hearings, MDNR would advertise and hold public hearings.
• If, after holding its public hearings, MDNR felt regulatory changes were appropriate, it would develop draft ordinance amendments that each community could consider. If MDNR did not believe regulatory changes were appropriate, it would so indicate.
• If MDNR recommended regulatory changes, the communities could consider within 60 calendar days adopting the proposed regulation as an ordinance amendment. If the regulation is not approved within 60 days, it is considered rejected.

Hodgson also reminded commissioners that a request was made nearly 10 years ago in 1997 seeking to extend the No Wake Zone all the way to the Napier Avenue bridge, after which the Michigan Department of Natural Resources held a hearing but ultimately did not authorize the extension. This time, Kincaid and his fellow petitioners are asking a shorter distance upriver for the extension to the north tip of Hidden Isle, the island in St. Joseph Township with Blackhawk Trail. The shorter extension comes to only about one-seventh of the distance to the Napier bridge according to Hodgson. 

Petitions bearing the signatures of 62 boaters representing 36 slips in the association were submitted to City Hall. Those petitioners also appealed to St. Joseph Township where a public hearing was held on October 3rd, and a resolution was approved asking the DNR to consider the request. 

Following Monday night's public hearing on the issue, commissioners will be asked to either approve a resolution of support and dispatch to the DNR, table the matter or decline the resolution. 

Here is an aerial photo showing the current boundary of the No Wake Zone…and the proposed, requested extension boundary (the current boundary is in red and the requested boundary is in blue):

*****UPDATE AT 7:45PM*****UPDATE AT 7:45PM*****