Stutsman County Park Board approves changes for 2024 dock permits

[Jake]

New changes have been approved for 2024 seasonal boat dock permits after a 6-1 vote was issued by The Stutsman County Park Board. The new permitting rules will allow docks of up to 60 feet in length. As well, it will allow the use of motorized vehicles for said dock installation and removal, along with placement of personal items on county lands if needed.

Some additional good news to come out of these changes, is that the annual permit fee is now $350, a $350 drop from the original $700 fee. Of course, there are some caveats with this price drop, as permit holders will now be responsible for managing the grass and taking care of weed control on local lands. It's supposed to help balance things out with dock maintenance and environmental care.

This of course doesn't mean that things won't change. There is a provision in the approval that seems to require a review before the board can authorize or issue dock permits. Especially to residences east of the Jamestown Reservoir. This could result in further changes to the permit process.

Read more on this here - Jamestown Sun

 

[Winny]

Seems like logical and useful changes. I am okay with the permit fee dropping in return for taking responsibility for grass care. It's not a bad compromise in regards to this. It certainly beats spending double on the permit. And I doubt you'll have to manage much anyway. As long as you're on it, and keep things clean and working, you should be fine.

 

[Eric]

Thanks for sharing, @Jake. I thought the legal relationship between the Bureau of Reclamation, County, and private property owners was pretty interesting here. Bureau of Rec recently transferred the area of land between the eastern Jamestown Reservoir shoreline and neighboring private property to Stutsman County. This put the County in the position of having to develop a permit process for property owners wanting to traverse the newly County-owned land to access their docks in the reservoir. It sounds like the County, as the newly-minted permitting authority, loosened restrictions for docks, e.g., by allowing docks to be a lot longer.

Overall, this sounds like great news for the property owners, at least temporarily...the article mentions there's some ambiguity over whether the County actually has legal authority to issue dock permits per the terms of the land conveyance agreement. It seems like the new permitting system is better for everyone involved so hopefully the County attorney's forthcoming opinion finds that dock permitting authority can stay with the County.

 

[Nomad]

Cutting permit fees by 50 percent and introducing rules for permit holders to manage the grass and take care of weed control on local lands seems to be very good both in the favor of the boar owners as well as the permit agency.