(Milford)– The Milford City Council voted unanimously Monday evening NOT to adopt a keyholing ordinance.
The council took the action following a public hearing. Several who spoke at the hearing called on the council to adopt the ordinance, saying it’s needed to protect the lakes. But City Administrator Brian Reed recommended the council follow a Planning and Zoning Commission recommendation to NOT adopt the ordinance. He sited a court case in which Wahpeton’s keyholing ordinance was contested and didn’t hold up. Reed says it was struck down simply because cities can’t control anything beyond the high water mark on lakes. That jurisdiction belongs solely to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
But David Dather, a resident of Lower Gar Lake, said the fact Wahpeton’s ordinance lost in court doesn’t necessarily mean Milford’s would, too. And he said it hadn’t been appealed to a higher court.
Plans by a developer to build a marina in a proposed development on Lower Gar is what led to the keyholing ordinance being proposed. But city officials say the operation probably would have been grandfathered in anyway, even if the ordinance would have been adopted.
Reed says the public and maybe even the city will be able to give input on the number of dock and hoist permits to be issued for the proposed operation. Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said last week they’ll be holding a public hearing on the matter sometime in February.
