With the water levels of Big Bear Lake at their lowest point in a decade, some shallow water lakefront homeowners are in a pinch - literally.
As water levels drop in shallower water coves, the amount of shoreline available to anchor one's dock decreases. In the past, as docks approached the point where they were getting squeezed out, the governing body of Big Bear Lake, the Big Bear Municipal Water District, would orchestrate moving docks in directions that would result in most lakefront homeowners having room for their boat slip.
Oftentimes, this procedure resulted in sliding docks from one's own lake frontage onto neighboring properties who had more lake frontage and better lake access. At times, docks were placed on lake frontage several homes over "hopscotching" other slips in the process.
As one would imagine, this process was time consuming for the Big Bear MWD as it required contacting homeowners, explaining the process and their reasoning for moving said docks, and answering questions (complaints) about the moving of slips.
This year, the board of directors of the BBMWD decided on a new policy. The new policy in essence states that if one's dock gets squeezed out by shrinking shoreline, that dock owner is out of luck. The BBMWD will no longer mandate sliding docks or hopscotching to accommodate said lakefront homeowner.
This decision was based on the principle that lakefront home buyers paid a higher price for having more shoreline and it wasn't fair to mandate that other docks be moved onto another's lake frontage. This new policy also makes the job of the BBMWD much easier as it is far less time consuming than orchestrating the movements of several docks requiring compliance from multiple homeowners.
As I have mentioned before in other Big Bear lakefront real estate blog posts, having deeper water access (where shrinking shoreline is much less of a problem) and more lake frontage is quite desirable when purchasing a lakefront home. It is important to realize the impact that shallow water years will have on your ability to use the lake and take into consideration the effect that has on the property's value.
Luckily, years like these where the lake drops to more than 10 feet below full are rare. But no one knows what mother nature has in store and taking into account the risks that come with a shallow water lakefronts is something any prudent home buyer should do.