Boat club owner asks to replace public dock with commerical slips

(Above) The public lake access located at Beach Avanue, on the west side of Redstone at 475 North Shore Drive, is being eyed for a commercial dock.-Reporter photo.

Proposal would keep public dock spaces, lease others

The Clear Lake Parks Board has tabled a request from Jake Kopriva, owner of Lake Time Boat Club, to construct a commercial boat dock at the Beach Drive lake access.

Kopriva, who promised to include five public boat slips among the estimated 30 his commercial dock would accommodate, was asked to resubmit a few different proposals for the next board meeting.  Currently, five boat slips are available to those who have been assigned to the dock through their application to the Parks Department.

Docks at 25 public accesses currently provide slips for 138 water craft, including personal watercraft/jet skies, according to the Parks Department.

   The dock would have slips for Lake Time Boat Club vessels, five for P&R designation, and the remainder would be leased to the public.

In addition, he would like to lease 500 square foot of space within the lower level of Redstone for office use.

Kopriva said he had initially hoped to construct a commercial dock off of the Redstone property.

Kopriva said he was informed he cannot build a commercial dock in front of Redstone because there is not enough space between the private dock used by Redstone owners and the public access dock at Beach Avenue.

“So instead of trying to squeeze docks in a space, let’s combine for one dock,” said Kopriva about his proposal to transform the traditional public dock into a commercial dock.

“The DNR is okay with a commercial dock at the site, but they want to see a sketch and will have the final say,” he added.  “It sounded like the Parks Board is willing to cooperate and they have asked for sketches.”

Last season was the first for the Lake Time Boat Club and Kopriva said he stationed two of his boats at the Sunset Bay dock near Clear Lake State Park.  Two other boats were trailered in and out of the water for use by club members.  If his commercial dock idea is approved, Kopriva said he would also like to add watercrafts, which could be rented by the hour.

“The main idea of the proposal was to get my boats on the water— for easier operation, but also run a slip rental business.  The City has somewhere between  200 and 300 names on

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a waiting list for dock spaces.  This idea could help meet some of those needs,” said Kopriva.

The Parks Department confirmed there are 293 persons waiting for a public dock space to become available.

The next meeting of the Parks Board is March 22.

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