Crystal Lake Campground has been granted approval for expansion and shoreline renovation during the Columbia County Board of Supervisors Planning and Zoning Committee’s meeting on December 3.
Steve Bodenschatz, representing Crystal Lake Park LLC, was a primary focus of the meeting, where he made multiple requests. These included an access variance, a planning map amendment, rezoning, a conditional use permit for campground expansion, and a conditional use permit for shore land filling and grading.
Principal Land Use Planner Renee Pulver-Johnson highlighted that the campground had been in a “non-conforming status” under previous ownership and explained that efforts had been made to engage past owners to address the issues.
“We’ve tried to reach out to all of [the previous owners] to try to get them to get through this process so we could clean this all up so we could regulate it in the proper way, and so finally we’re getting to that point,” Pulver-Johnson told Hometown News.
The committee approved the motion for the access variance. Pulver-Johnson then presented a plan to rezone 163 acres to align with the current use as a mobile home park and outlined a proposal to expand the campground by 108 sites with a rearranged and expanded layout.
Bodenschatz expressed his appreciation to the Planning and Zoning staff, describing the process as the most comprehensive presentation he has encountered in his 50 years of experience with zoning committees.
He emphasized that the issues dated back to 2017. “We haven’t changed any use of our property out there,” Bodenschatz said, explaining that his goal was simply to bring the zoning into agreement with the existing use of the property.
Committee member Doug Richmond, a West Point resident, addressed concerns about the environmental impact of the project. He noted that he was not worried about the campground’s effect on the land, particularly when compared to past uses.
In all the development where I live, which is along Lake Wisconsin, I’ve seen no impact whatsoever on wildlife,” said Richmond. “It’s probably better now than when farmers pastured their cattle on that land… the wildlife if flourishing now more than ever.”
