Residents review proposals for second marina at Bear Lake
Nov 16, 2022, 6:46 PM | Updated: 6:49 pm
GARDEN CITY, Utah — People who love spending summer weekends and vacations at Bear Lake State Park gathered Wednesday to review proposals for a second marina.
The area is consistently overcrowded during the warmer months, and there are plans on the table to build a second marina.
Wednesday night’s gathering was more of an open house to see all of the proposed plans.
Many people there said an additional marina is needed to deal with the overcrowding. But how that gets done is where some disagree.
During the summer months lines at the marina stretch out into the highway.
“We don’t even put out boat on the lake on the weekends because it’s so painful,” complained Rial Chew.
It can take hours to get into the water and back out and to get a slip can up to ten years for larger boats.
“My kids will be grown and gone by the time we get the waiting list, so we’re excited for it,” Chew said.
A whole additional marina, just to the south, will likely get the green light. It would bring an additional 300 slips and ten to 12 more boat launch ramp lanes.
“They’ve got a two-lane highway and it’s completely back up,” Greg Neilson said. He has a cabin near the marina. He’s concerned bringing in even more people could be a problem. “We need a marina, but to put all of Bear Lake into one little spot in Garden City, where it’s located on a blind curve does not make any sense safety-wise. It needs to have the congestion spread out.”
There are alternate plans like putting the marina just north or on the east side or even on the south shore. For now, that twin marina right next door appears to be the most cost-effective.
“It’s kind of a whole big picture that goes together, from environmental impacts to traffic impacts – what water, what sewer is available,” Richard Droesbeke, manager of Bear Lake State Park said.
Droesbeke said the east side would be ideal because there is less traffic, it’s deep, but there is no infrastructure.
He said they are still looking for feedback. You can send your thoughts here.
If everything goes smoothly crews could break ground by next fall.
