The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the planned second phase of data collection in support of the Master Plan Update for Lake Lanier will be delayed until the 2019 recreation season.
The delay in conducting public surveys will also require the public and stakeholder meetings tentatively scheduled for this fall to be delayed until fall 2019. The entire schedule will shift and completion of the Environmental Assessment and final Master Plan Update will be pushed out another year, according to the Corps.
Last winter, during public open house meetings for the Lake Lanier Master Plan Update, it was announced that USACE would be collecting usage data and public opinions about recreation on Lake Lanier. Data was successfully collected over the summer of 2018 on boat usage both during the week and weekends through aerial photographs and first-hand observations to help calculate boating density on the lake.
In the second part of the data collection, USACE plans to conduct a user survey consisting of onsite exit interviews and visitor mailings to receive public comment on topics such as facility development, user conflict, and safety concerns. This data collection effort has been delayed until the 2019 recreation season begins. The Corps says without a full analysis of the user survey results combined with boating counts and previous public and stakeholder input, recommendations and management proposals cannot be fully evaluated.
Data previously collected is available in a story map on this website: https://arcg.is/1qPnDz
This data has not been fully analyzed and no conclusions have been drawn at this time, according to the Corps.
