Chelan commissioners and citizens discuss possible Lake Chelan shoreline land use at community meeting

An evening community meeting hosted by the Chelan County Commissioners Tuesday received countywide citizen participation.

Commissioners were able to clarify the legal wrangling going on over a tax district being formed by the Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority at Malaga.

The formation of the tax district is now in appellate court.

There was concern shared over Mountain Barge Services possible relocation on the Lake Chelan shoreline.

"Due to a pedestrian pathway, the barge operation had difficulty getting their trucks down (to the existing dock) and then there's also some traffic concerns," Commissioner Brad Hawkins responded. "In terms of kind of a long term solution one of the potential ideas we had is, what if the regional port sort of thought of developing a Port of Lake Chelan, as an actual physical port that's publicly owned that can support multiple operations. They are working with property owners right now."

In its preliminary stage, Commissioner Shon Smith said the county is considering buying land near Plain for a community park.

"They have nowhere up in Plain to gather together for their winter sports, for their summer sports, for the spring and fall sports," said Smith. "The tourists that come through there, they're like, well, what else do we do here? Plain is really wanting to capitalize on that traffic coming through and saying, hang out here for a little bit, stay. We don't quite have the announcement ready to let you know where that is going to be but Chelan County plans on owning about 18 acres."

A Leavenworth resident told the commissioners, “If people could please consider the fastest growing sport in the world is pickleball. There’s a large population of people in Leavenworth that drive 45 minutes to Wenatchee and we’d be delighted to drive 25 minutes to Plain and have real outdoor courts.”

County Community Development Director Deanna Walter also mentioned that two new housing developments, Malaga Ridge and Malaga Meadows, go before a land use hearings officer on April 15^th.