THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606180151
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT McCASKEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 56 lines
Boats run aground may be a less frequent sight on Pretty Lake in upcoming months.
City Council recently gave the go-ahead for a plan to place channel markers in the small body of water just west of the Shore Drive Bridge near the Navy's Little Creek Amphibious Base. The proposal will be reviewed by the Coast Guard and the state within the next several months.
Residents in the neighborhoods that border the lake, including Roosevelt Gardens and East Ocean View, say the markers would help people better navigate waters that range from a maximum of about 16 feet deep to as little as 2 feet deep or less.
``You can only get a boat in or out about four or five hours before and after high tide,'' said Bill Harbert, president of the Roosevelt Gardens Area Civic League and a major proponent of the plan. ``If you're too late or early, you'll get stuck on a mud flat. All the residents around the lake are in favor of this.''
Jim Janata, who lives in East Ocean View and is a past civic league president of that neighborhood, says the markers have been needed for a long time.
``A lot of new residents who don't know the lake have run aground, and a lot of people have run into crab pots,'' Janata said.
Although Pretty Lake was made a crab sanctuary in June 1995, off-limits to commercial crabbers, residents' crab pots often clog the waterway. State regulations prohibit crab pots from being placed in marked channels.
The plan calls for approximately a dozen non-lighted piling markers from 19th Bay Street to 3rd Bay Street. Pilings would be in the lake's natural channel, which runs along its northern shoreline.
The Norfolk Department of Recreation, Parks and General Services is preparing applications for the project, which will be sent to the Coast Guard, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and Army Corps of Engineers.
``I expect this to be approved,'' said Betty Webb, assistant director of the Department of Recreation, Parks and General Services. ``The Coast Guard has been very supportive.''
Webb said the city is responding to citizens' requests for the channel markers and that lakeside residents knowledgable about the waterway have been assisting the department with the pilings' proposed locations. She called the effort a ``citizen/city joint project.''
The plan also calls for designing the channel markers in a way to accommodate osprey nests or building separate pilings for the birds.
Janata said the markers are a ``natural progression for the future of the lake,'' noting the city's plan to build a new and larger Shore Drive Bridge starting in early 1998. The bridge would allow larger craft access to the lake, possibly spurring residential growth and property values.
If the channel marker proposal is approved, construction could begin in the fall. ILLUSTRATION: Map
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