Public Meetings To Be Held on Shoreline Management Plan

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

The U.S. Corps of Engineers’ Savannah District wants to hear from property owners around Lake Hartwell regarding its proposed new shoreline management plan.

The shoreline management plan provides guidance and information for Corps managers and the public on managing the reservoir’s shoreline and adjacent public lands and waters controlled by the project.

It also defines what actions adjacent landowners can take to change or improve the shoreline.

Sandy Campbell is the natural resources manager at the Hartwell Lake Project.

Campbell said over a 12-week period, the Corps will take public input before making any new changes or additions to the current plan.

“We want people to just comment on the current plan we have,” she said. “We want to hear what they like, what they don’t like, what they’d like to see change, what they’d like to see stay the same. After the 12-week period, we’ll go through and sift through all of the comments and what was the over-riding majority of comments and what they want to see.”

Campbell said once the review of those comments is complete, there will be yet another comment period.

“Once we’ve got that plan pretty m ch hammered out, we’ll again put it out for public comment for a 30-day period. In addition to that, we will have a synopsis with it; a recapping that says, ‘here’s what the current plan is and here are the changes’ so that you don’t have to know the plan verbatim.”

Campbell said the Corps will hold three public workshops in three communities March 21-23.

The workshops will be held at the Anderson Civic Center in Anderson on March 21 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., the Hart County Adult Learning Center on March 22 from 4 to 7 p.m., and the Gignilliat Community Center on March 23 in Seneca from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

These are drop-in workshops and there will be no formal presentation at any of the meetings.

Campbell noted the Hartwell Project allows more types of permitted activities and facilities and has more shoreline open to use than any other Corps of Engineers project in the nation.

The Corps last revised the plan in 2007 and Campbell said they must revise the plan every ten years.

Once all of the comments are in, Campbell said it will be about a year and half before the final draft shoreline management plan is finalized.