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Latest Email Update from W. Jeff Green, AICP, Supervisor – Shoreline Management for Ameren.
Happy New Year!
As promised, Ameren Missouri has moved aggressively in developing and providing for public input on our plan for changes to the Project Boundary at Lake of the Ozarks. The plan should alleviate some community concerns over the Project Boundary issue facing property owners at the Lake of the Ozarks that have included some opinions that were based on misinformation. Ameren Missouri has committed to providing property owners with the facts about the issue and has released for public comment a draft Project Boundary amendment. The proposal is in response to an order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dated Nov. 10. The new FERC order clarifies the agency’s position regarding structures within the Project Boundary – an elevation-based, Ameren Missouri-owned strip of land surrounding the Lake’s shoreline.
The order provides a framework for Ameren Missouri to do what the company had initially proposed to resolve the issue of encroachments within the Project Boundary – namely, to redraw the boundary, where appropriate, so the vast majority of properties currently identified as encroachments would no longer be considered as such and to work with the remaining property owners on a case-by-case basis to determine a solution. In its plan, Ameren Missouri proposes setting the Project Boundary to 662 feet elevation for most lakefront properties.
The proposal is available online at www.AmerenMissouri.com/Lake. Comments may also be made by calling 573.365.9203 or by mailing them to:
Project Boundary Comments
Ameren Missouri Shoreline Management
Post Office Box 993
Lake Ozark, MO 65049
Public workshops have been scheduled for resource agencies and the public to provide input about the proposal:
* Osage Beach
January 3, 2012 – 6-8 p.m.
Inn at the Grand Glaize
5142 Highway 54
Osage Beach, Missouri 65065
* Sunrise Beach
January 5, 2012 – 6-8 p.m.
Lake West Christian Academy
17178 N. State Highway 5
Sunrise Beach, Missouri 65079
The public is invited to comment on the plan until January 15, 2012. Ameren Missouri is moving aggressively to prepare its plan and submit it to the FERC in the first quarter of 2012, well ahead of the June, 2012, deadline set by the agency. “Our plan to revise the Project Boundary will alleviate many concerns homeowners have, and we have no intention of forcing the removal of residences located in whole or in part on Ameren-owned property,” Jeff Green, Shoreline supervisor for Ameren Missouri, said. “Additionally, the plan does not call for leasing land, structures or facilities back to affected property owners. Any rumors to the contrary are simply not true.” Green added that it is important to understand that there is a Project Boundary issue and a property ownership issue as well. “I encourage property and dwelling owners to seek out information about their specific circumstances and understand the ownership and conveyance history of their lake property.”
Ameren Missouri, formerly Union Electric, has owned the land that comprises the Lake of the Ozarks since it built Bagnell Dam and the Osage Renewable Energy Center in the late 1920s. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued and administered all permits for development within the project boundary for the first 50 years after Bagnell Dam was completed. In 1983, Ameren Missouri began issuing permits for docks in 1983. The company’s license from FERC to operate the Osage plant requires the company to manage the shoreline by balancing the various recreational, environmental and operational aspects of the project. In the most recent relicensing of the project, enhanced mapping and aerial photography enabled a comprehensive identification of structures located along the shoreline. As a result, numerous unauthorized structures were found to be entirely or partially located on Ameren Missouri property.
Sincerely,
W. Jeff Green, AICP
Supervisor – Shoreline Management
Real Estate Department
T 573.365.9214
F 573.365.5773
E wgreen@ameren.com
Ameren Services
PO Box 993 (MC LE883)
Lake Ozark, MO 65049