(Okoboji)– A proposed ordinance revision that would change rules and regulations for 10 public access docks in Okoboji was voted down at Tuesday’s city council meeting. A second reading of the proposed revision failed, with two members voting in favor and three against, starting the entire process over.
Some grandfather clauses remain the major sticking points. Council member Jim Delperdang said in his opinion, eliminating the hoist size limitation in the ordinance would help address that…
“If we would just eliminate the hoist size, it would take away the grandfather issue. It’s going to be limited by the footprint of the five foot setbacks, the length of the dock. They’re going to be limited by what’s available then to put the hoist on, so. We’re making life more miserable for ourselves by putting this hoist restriction on and having to have all this debate.”
Fellow council member Julie Andres disagreed…
“Otherwise I think 20 years from now, if there’s a 40 foot boat or whatever size, 50 foot, whatever it is, a boat dock and lift on one of these public accesses, we have ourselves to blame.”
Councilman Jim Hentges suggested the city abandon the ordinance altogether…
“We can walk away from this, just set our deal and say you get along, you follow the DNR regulations, and if you don’t, the DNR comes in and if they don’t like it, they’ll shut you down. Period. I mean that’s the bottom line. That takes all the headaches off of us. We’re trying, we’re all trying in our own way, a lot. I mean we’ve worked on it for months, but it would take us out of it. I’m just throwing it out.”
The council, however, did seem open to starting the process all over again. The same committee of council members that assembled the first proposed revisions indicated they would be willing to serve in that position once again. They plan to meet to put together another proposal which could come before the council at their meeting in October.
