LAKE OZARK, Mo. -Ameren officials say they are relieved a final resolution has been reached between the utility, a government agency and the Lake of the Ozarks property owners whose structures encroached on the lake's boundaries.
"We are very pleased with FERC's recent order accepting our June 5, 2012, request to permit over 200 nonconforming structures at Lake of the Ozarks," said Jeff Green, Ameren Missouri shoreline manager. "Although there is much work left to do in actually issuing permits for these structures, this represents the final chapter in a year-long process involving property owners, agencies and the FERC."
Green was commenting on a request from Ameren that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allow them to "grandfather in" some 215 non-conforming structures as the final step in the company's five-plus years-long campaign to have its energy license renewed.
The recommendation came one year after FERC's June 2012 order to comprehensively revise the project boundary at the Lake to 662 feet above sea level and even lower in areas where private homes encroached onto its property. The order included a provision that required Ameren Missouri to inventory and recommend a plan for all remaining non-conforming decks, patios, gazebos and similar structures. For more than a year, Ameren Missouri inventoried the structures, worked with property owners and agencies before recommending its closure plan to FERC.
Although there were originally some 4,000-plus structures, including 1,500 homes, that encroached onto Ameren's property, many of those structures, including all private residences, were exempted from the issue of "encroachment" in 2012 when Ameren redrew its boundary to a line approximately 662 feet above sea level.
In commenting on this latest decision by FERC, Green said, "Our main goal from the beginning has been to work out a reasonable solution that successfully resolves issues related to the location of unauthorized lakefront decks, patios and similar structures within our project boundary. Now that FERC has approved our plan, we can now move forward with issuing permits and getting back to business as usual at the lake."
Green said it is important that lake front property owners take note that under the newly approved shoreline management plan, new decks, patios and gazebos are not allowed to encroach on that portion of the shoreline that lies below the 662-foot elevation line.
Property owners considering new construction along the shoreline should contact Green at his Lake Ozark office for information about where the 662-foot elevation line is on individual properties before starting construction.
Lake of the Ozarks is the only large privately owned body of water in Missouri built specifically for the purpose of operating a hydroelectric dam. Ameren Missouri forerunner Union Electric of St. Louis built Lake of the Ozarks in the 1930s, and today operates it under the company's license with FERC.
Other large lakes, such as Truman, Mark Twain and Table Rock, were built and are owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which does not allow the construction of privately owned structures on the shoreline.