2018.11.26 Council Agenda Item 10

The Highland Lake Leadership Team (HLLT) is a group of representatives from the Towns of Falmouth and Windham, the Highland Lake Association, and other stakeholders whose mission is to improve the water quality of Highland Lake.  One of the charges of the HLLT is to evaluate existing ordinances in Falmouth and Windham for their effectiveness in protecting the lake, research lake protections utilized by other jurisdictions, and propose modifications to the regulations in Falmouth and Windham as appropriate.

In furtherance of this charge, the HLLT recently developed five recommendations which they are proposing for adoption by the Town of Falmouth.  Representatives from the HLLT attended the 10/22/18 CDC meeting to discuss their five recommendations, and on 11/13/18 the CDC indicated their support, in concept, for all five recommendations.  The CDC recognized that some of the HLLT recommendations are not yet fully developed and that additional information gathering and research will be required in order for those recommendations to be implemented and/or developed into formal ordinance language.  The CDC also recognized that this research process may generate the need for additional policy decisions around the details of implementation. 

Accordingly, the CDC is recommending the following to the Council:

1. If the Council is similarly in support of implementing the five HLLT recommendations, that staff begin developing proposed ordinance language and policy options for implementing the recommendations;
2. That staff bring the results of the work described above back to the CDC for refinement, as necessary, at a future CDC meeting;
3. That the Town of Falmouth work closely with the Town of Windham to develop options related to HLLT’s recommendation to conduct periodic photo inventories of the Highland Lake shoreline.  It is believed that there are likely efficiencies that could be realized by having the two towns coordinate this photo inventory work. 

Attached, please find the five HLLT recommendations.  Representatives from the HLLT will be in attendance at the Council meeting to describe the recommendations and answer any questions the Council may have.