Developer Drops Plan to Lease Lake Lindero

The would-be developer of a fishing club on Lake Lindero has withdrawn his offer to lease the lake, leaving homeowners who live near the water pleased about the plan’s demise.

Despite early reports by a member of the Lake Lindero Homeowners Assn. board that the plan might be the answer to all the community’s problems, the plan by Santa Barbara developer Mark Lee of Pan Pacific apparently met with strong opposition by a number of the area’s 459 residents.

Lee said Wednesday that he had withdrawn his plan last week, but would not discuss his reasons.

The homeowners association board’s vice president, Yvette Touquet, said she surmised that it was in response to the lakefront residents’ vocal opposition at an association meeting two weeks ago.

She said the residents were worried about the possible effect on their property values and about privacy issues related to the plan, which would have allowed as many as 100 people at a time to use the lake for fishing.

“The lake people were concerned about what time they were going to have people there, how many people and how loud it would get there,” said Touquet, who also lives along the water.

But residents also made it clear to the board that, after the completion of improvements to the development’s golf course, some attention should be paid to the lake, which has long had problems with water quality.

Pan Pacific had planned to maintain and secure Lake Lindero as a fishing hole, open to residents and the community for a fee. The company would have been responsible for making improvements to the property, some that might cost more than $1 million.

Residents said that they have not ruled out allowing another party to present an offer to make use of the lake, but for now they want the board to find ways to fix the problems with the financial resources already available.