LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — This is a decision that has been in the making for more than 50 years and will take 20 years to finalize. Now, that detail is very important to people who are caught in the middle.
This is so important that 200 people show up on a Saturday morning when they're supposed to be out on the water, and it's the whole reason they come to beautiful Cottonwood Cove in the first place.
The National Park Service (NPS) began putting the wheels in motion at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in January, with a new lease that will determine the fate of the small trailer park on the shores of Lake Mojave in the scenic Cottonwood Cove area, about an hour south. Approved the contract. of Las Vegas. There has been talk of removing the trailer since 1971.
About 200 trailers that have been there “in perpetuity” will be removed under a new agreement between NPS and Lake Mead Mojave Adventures, the concessionaire that operates most of the commercial facilities in the recreation area. It is scheduled to be phased out by 2043.
Why is it changing?
“Trailer Village” is a throwback. This is not how he wants the NPS to run things in his 21st century. And Lake Mead is the last arm of his NPS system to realize a decades-old vision of using public lands. The Willow Beach trailers are gone, and the Katherine Landing Trailer Village is already being phased out.
At Cottonwood Cove, trailer owners are allowed to occupy their vacation homes for a total of 180 days throughout the year. The trailer and the boat parked next to it have become a way of life for families who travel hundreds of miles to get here, and a tranquil place filled with memories for those who have been coming for decades. . They understand what's coming, but that doesn't mean they like it.
Trailer owner Jim Stahovich thinks the answer is simple. The trailer can last until 2043, so why not let it run as it is until then?Let the trailer village quietly “sunset.” However, we now seem to be past that point. Instead, Lake Mead Mohave Adventures adds a ton of unpopular rules to the equation.
The biggest is a change to a long-standing rule that would require owners to stop parking their boats next to trailers. They will have to park in a dry storage area being built by Lake Mead Mojave Adventures.
strong opinion
What's the reason for the change? NPS officials say the drill poses a fire hazard because the boats are loaded with fuel. This idea worried many people, including Owen Evans.
“In the 50 years I've been here, we've never had a problem like that,” Evans said. “But they're creating a whole other hazard with another 100 boats being towed over the road and back and forth to Cottonwood Inlet.” He said concerns about the fire risk “are not going to go away. No,” he said.
This area is located 22 miles straight east of Searchlight, Nevada.
“We've been coming here since 1965 and enjoying the trailer village. It's been here ever since,” said Evans, who lives in Redondo Beach, California. Now, instead of thinking about how his grandchildren will be able to use the trailer for years to come, he has time to spare.
A man who operates a trailer in Katherine Landing criticized the practice. “Without a trailer village, no one would be able to go out there and park a $100,000 boat,” Kurt Vance said. He is also involved in a fight to find a way to protect the owner of the trailer from what is happening.
When word got out that Cottonwood Cove was phasing out the park, a storm of opinion ensued on social media. Many of them came from the people of Catherine Landing. At Katherine Landing, the same process began a year ago when a lease contract quietly arrived in the mail.
This time, when the opportunity to ask questions came, people gathered together.
issue
They questioned recent rent increases, appraisal costs for new dry storage areas, and insurance costs. They viewed the motives behind the new rules with suspicion.
Some people are leaving now. Cottonwood Cove owner Dale Pederson said two trailers were on the market before all of this surfaced. Currently, 17 people are selling it.
Pederson said owners need to know the plan in detail because that will be the basis for their decision to stay or go.
Vance and others believe the trailer itself is being ignored. He said he is considering hiring lobbyists to intensify the fight.
long tradition
For some, it may mean the end of a long family tradition.
“Just writing this brings tears to my eyes. Everything Lake Mojave means to me and to us,” Jenni Rosenthal wrote in an email to 8 News Now. Her family has been coming to Katherine's Landing since before she was born. Her mother's ashes were scattered on a nearby mountain.
“For most of us, this is a second home filled with a lifetime of love and memories. It means more to us than they can understand. And to our children. We'll do whatever we need to do to make sure it doesn't go anywhere so that it can continue to be enjoyed as much as we are, and hopefully our children's children can be as well. “There are memories there,” she wrote.
Lake Mead Mojave Adventures announced a new 25-year lease for Cottonwood Cove in January. They revealed plans to spend $10 million renovating the area. The company worked with NPS officials to extend the deadline for owners to sell their trailers if they wish. He has until December 31, 2028.
At the time of sale, the purchaser must be informed about the future of the trailer village. When 2043 arrives, the remaining trailers will be used as short-term rentals.
Jim Gartner, who heads the Trailer Village HOA, says 2043 is still a long way off, but no one knows how plans will change. He said he knew the future of the village when he bought the trailer.
“Personally, I plan on enjoying this place for the next 19 years. I've had my trailer since 1998, and I plan on continuing to maintain it the same way I always have. “I'm hopeful that there will be some relief when it comes to parking in the parking lot. I think that's something that needs more research,” Gartner said.
“We love our neighbors here. We are visitors. We are not owners of the land,” he said.
