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Small resorts look for help on PUDs CROW WING COUNTY TASK FORCE Senior Reporter Small resorts, often with cabins built in the 1930s, are finding it harder to lure guests without upgrades with modern conveniences.
Monday afternoon owners of small resorts told a Crow Wing County task force what the county could do to help resorts survive.
"Just hold up the hoops and I'll jump through them," said Bret Jevning, Cozy Bay Resort on Lake Edward. Jevning was echoed by other resort owners when he asked for more definitive information from the county's planning and zoning office as to what he could and could not do when it came to resort renovations.
In December, the county established a six-month moratorium on shoreland planned unit developments and established a task force to gain information and hash out recommendations.
Bonnie Finnerty, county planner, previously said the best way to describe a PUD is to think of people who have individual homes but also have a common area similar to an association. The common area may be a beach, open space or trails. Resort conversions come into play as housekeeping cabins are replaced by a setting more reminiscent of condos. Individuals own their own homes but have common ownership of other amenities.
Overall shoreland PUD discussions include concerns about the effect of more people and buildings on the environment, particularly lakes. Others fear changes in the county's regulations will keep resorts from thriving, hurting the economy.
Monday the talk was on broader footing with resort owners telling the task force they have a vested interest in clean lakes and they need to be able to renovate small aging cabins. The task force wanted to know where the problems were in the current ordinances.
About 14 people attended the meeting. Resort owners said they needed dock space for guests, needed an ability to rebuild on the existing cabin's footprint instead of cutting down trees to move the cabin site farther from the lake. And they spoke of the need to add upgraded bathrooms, replacing tiny ones carved into cabins that were often built before indoor plumbing.
Shared ownership is another issue as resort owners sell individual cabins to private ownership with agreements to have the cabins in a rental pool part or most of the year. Resort owners point to the shared ownership as one way to pay for upgrades and expansions. A trend toward rentals of privately owned lake homes also was discussed in terms of competition for tourist dollars.
Commissioner Gary Walters said if resorts are allowed to add cabins to survive financially, with an example of growing from 20 cabins to 30, then the additional 10 cabins should be torn down if the resort is sold for residential development. He said the aim is to help resorts continue to operate and not to help them make huge revenue gains when selling out.
The task force will meet again later this month. A public hearing is expected in April.
RENEE RICHARDSON can be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.
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