There Goes The Neighborhood

[dr_phil_physics]

First It Was Just A Big Hole In The Ground And Piles Of Dirt

Given that we live in the country, having the neighborhood going to hell, albeit in slow motion, was one thing. See, some developer decided that what Allendale needed was a set of rectangular artificial lakes to put houses up for a water skiing community. As if there are no lakes in Michigan for any sort of recreation.

The development has taken years of nothing going on punctuated by spurts of furious ground engineering. Eventually, last year, they started filling their lakes. For a development which has something like 60 lots on it, they've only built one spec house. In a sea of water surrounded by huge piles of dirt, it looks oddly apocalyptic sitting out there.

The other year they put up a sign with the name of the development -- Placid Waters. Funny, I don't think of the word "placid" in combination with jet skis and water skiing boats. But hey, a lot of Michigan boaters wanna have a place to play with their boats. And prior to the recession, building homes and condos for people who don't want to have to trailer their boats was probably a good investment, if you're into such things, I suppose...

Huh?

Yesterday I heard of some sort of international water skiing and wake boarding tournament that was coming to Placid Waters on 26-27 June 2009. Admission $10 a head. WTF? I thought this was supposed to be some sort of closed community. Now they're expecting a circus?

But Now We Learn Of Their Insidious Plans

So while paying for gas in town this morning, I saw a poster for this event and I decided I'd better Google Placid Waters when I got to work. And now I find not just their schedule of events, but also their evil master plans.

PLACID WATERS OF ALLENDALE FEATURES LAKE PLACID

Lake Placid is an engineered, tournament conditions lake. Six bays are connected for easy transit between your sessions. Three bays will feature permanent slalom courses. Two bays will be for board sports or trick skiing. One bay will be for board sports, trick skiing, and jumping. Expect to have the best in the world pay a visit a few times a year to test their skills against each other, and perhaps you—it will be your home water.

Placid Waters is organized as a Site Condominium project around Lake Placid. Once in full operation, the community will be self-governing. There are site and building restrictions to keep the value and standards of the community high. The entire property is private and golf carts will be the preferred mode of transportation.

...

June 26 and 27 is the Global Invitational (www.globalinvitational.com). Tickets are available at Action Watersports (616-896-3100). Sponsorship information is available by e-mailing info@placidwaters.com. We expect a big crowd for one of the very few pro tournaments this year. The competition should be fierce - and you can be close enough to feel the mist from the passing skier.

Sigh

All this takes place about two miles from our house, over on 84th Avenue. Why am I just learning of these tournament competition plans now? I don't recall any of the things I've seen in Allendale ever suggesting that Placid Waters was anything other than a recreational water community, with straight lakes as opposed to the two irregular ones in the development done on the other side of the Grand River from GVSU.

Lake Placid? With bread and circuses? Fuck no. I don't think they know what the word placid means. Sigh.

Dr. Phil

Comments

[steve-buchheit.livejournal.com]

Okay well the tournament thing makes sense then, because before that I'm thinking, "Dog runs, but with boats."

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

For long stretches of time the site has been inactive -- we kept on wondering if they'd gotten cold feet or lost their money. In a way I agree that this "makes sense", not just using the watery drag strips for the condo owners. Also, if they're going to do events, they'll actually have a reason to keep the water clean, as opposed to some of the skanky and smelly "ponds" I've seen in some other developments.

But I gotta wonder how they'll deal with crowds if they ever build on all the lots, because most of the waterfronts would be peoples' back yards. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Not at all pleased...

[(Anonymous)]

My opinion of the A-Dale township board just plummeted a few notches -- *somebody* must have known that this was the plan all along, and zoning must have been involved.... --d.

Re: Not at all pleased...

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

And since the GVSU ski team is doing events later in the year and "has been practising there", the university clearly knows about it, too. Funny how we didn't know.

Dr. Phil

Re: Not at all pleased...

[(Anonymous)]

Don't know where you people have been. When this project was first announced, it was stated that they would host competitions at Lake Placid, even during the township planning commission and board meetings. Also, mention of this was made on wzzm13.com ( http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=59356 ) back on August 11, 2006.

"The development will also be able to host water-skiing competitions of a national caliber."

There were other news articles mentioning this at the time as well.

- signed 68th Ave Allendale Resident

Re: Not at all pleased...

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Well, wherever I was I wasn't watching Channel 13 News. Is it required viewing? What I said was:

Why am I just learning of these tournament competition plans now? I don't recall any of the things I've seen in Allendale ever suggesting that Placid Waters was anything other than a recreational water community, with straight lakes as opposed to the two irregular ones in the development done on the other side of the Grand River from GVSU.

Why am _I_ just learning about this now? I mean, come on, this thing is this weekend and they still don't have a sign up saying FUTURE SITE OF TOURNAMENT? Other than some news items I heard recently and the fliers I saw at the Family Fare gas station, I still wouldn't know from the actual site that anything was happening there other than a community development. Some mention from three years ago isn't the same thing. I don't know if they just don't know about promotion or whether they're running in stealth mode to stay under the radar -- had I been out of town on that one day, I still wouldn't have known about it.

I don't recall any of the things I've seen in Allendale ever suggesting that Placid Waters was anything other than a recreational water community... The Grand Rapids Press doesn't use up a lot of space to report Allendale news. I don't usually see the monthly flier from the Chamber of Commerce. And despite GVSU having its main campus in Allendale, WGVU-FM doesn't spend a lot of time doing Allendale news. So no, I didn't hear about it -- and some friends of ours who are plugged into all sorts of community things and usually aware of all the goings on weren't aware of this either, so it obviously wasn't widely published.

"The development will also be able to host water-skiing competitions of a national caliber." -- note the words "will also be able to". And again, I didn't hear anything about it until very recently.

Your mileage will vary.

Where have I (i.e., you people) been? Commuting 154 miles a day to my job most days and writing in the wee hours of the night. I'm going to miss some news stories, particularly since Allendale isn't well covered. Nor am I particularly plugged into the community. No need to be smugly insulting about it.

- signed Warner Street Allendale Township Resident

Re: Not at all pleased...

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

I might add, that I don't remember when/where I learned of Placid Waters' construction. I may have seen something that mentioned competitions -- I don't recall. But that would've been several years ago. And as I've said, there's been large amounts of inactivity and no promotion except that one round, so even if I saw something, it certainly wasn't reinforced by any other news coverage.

But who knows?

Dr. Phil

Re: Not at all pleased...

[(Anonymous)]

I agree there hasn't been much promotion or media coverage of this event. I learned of it a few weeks back sort of by accident myself. However, I did hear an ad last week promoting the event, on 107.3 (WBBL) radio.

- signed 68th Ave Allendale Resident

Re: Not at all pleased...

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Wonderful. I don't think I've ever listened to WBBL in my life. You found out about by accident as well, which goes along with my point that they've not done a great job of banging the drum about this particular event. See, I'm a big believer in planning, systems and institutional memory -- you can lose your shirt on a badly planned startup, just like you can lose out on an established event by taking it all too casually.

One wonders how many people will actually show up.

Dr. Phil

Re: Not at all pleased...

[(Anonymous)]

I think the media said 900 people showed (and no, I didn't go :) ). Seems like a pretty good crowd around a few finger lakes. There must have been quite a bit of word of mouth in the waterskiing community...

- 68th Avenue Allendale Resident

Re: Not at all pleased...

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, it is true that the wzzm13.com article stated "will be able to host", but other news articles and statements from the developers themselves (including at the township meetings) indicated that there "would be" competitions. The anonymous poster above seems to indicate this was all a secret (with the "A-Dale township board" in cahoots, possibly).

I guess my point is, nobody was hiding anything, and Placid Waters didn't just throw this competition together because of a lack of sales (of lots). This was in the plans/works since the initial announcement.

On a side note, I noticed at several realty websites (example: http://www.homesgrandrapidsrealestate.com/Allendale/vacant-lots/), there is property for sale (must be near your place), and they mention that it's "...located less than a mile from the future Placid Waters development, which will be a series of lakes for international water ski competitions with an ESPN tower." An ESPN tower!

- signed 68th Ave Allendale Resident

Re: Not at all pleased...

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Lighten up -- my whole piece was designed with a somewhat humorous tone, which you would know if you've read my ramblings before. You're taking this way too seriously and I have to wonder what investment you have in this story -- and how did you get here anyway?

Having one anonymous poster worrying about another anonymous poster is a bit rich. Especially as that other anonymous poster's tone matches my own, which makes sense since I happen to know who it is.

I've been here for a long time. Why would I bother to look at several realty websites? I'm not moving and I'm not in real estate. But thanks for the comment about the ESPN tower. If they are serious about coverage for this event, then it's nice to know they thinking of ways to get the shots they need.

Anyway, I've already admitted from the start that _I_ don't know why I didn't know about this before. Which covers a whole lotta ground. Why would I read the initial announcements from the developer? What I heard was that this was this was a planned water skiing development, as opposed to the developments on the other side of the Grand River on M-45 -- didn't they run into issues about wetlands or something? Now since I'm not a boater, I've no dog in this hunt. But when they did put up the sign showing the runs, I have to admit to thinking along the lines of Steve that it all looked pretty boring. And given the general lack of landscaping, the whole thing still looks pretty weird.

Dr. Phil

[wendyb-09.livejournal.com]

Oh, just wait. You'll be able to HEAR those little bitty boats as they rev-up those competition-size motors and get up to the speeds needed for water boarded sports. AND with the short lakes, they'll be doing a lot more of it, it just doesn't look like there's enough room for them to do an arc turn at near full speed.

I speak from experience. When we had the house near the lake in Woodstock, and the lake less than two miles on two sides, we heard boats all the time, especially on cool, quiet mornings when we'd have the windows open. And those were just the recreational family boats.

You're going to appreciate your new a/c a whole lot more this summer!!

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Except our new A.C. is whisper quiet. Though the windows, when closed, do block a lot of sound.

Dr. Phil

[wendyb-09.livejournal.com]

That's the point! You'll be able to close the windows on hot days!

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Unless we continue to have cool weather like today and we're not running the A.C.

Dr. Phil