FRISCO, Colo. -- It may be cold and blustery in the mountains, but the Town of Frisco is talking about boating season before spring season even begins — and they’re planning millions of dollars worth of improvements at the local marina.
“The capacity down here has just reached it’s cap,” Assistant Town Manager Diane McBride said Friday.
So after plenty of research, the town is closing in on a master plan of major changes to happen over the course of the next decade, starting with the bottom of the bay.
“In the simplest sense, [it's] a big excavation project. Big earth movers digging up the bottom of the lake and depositing that dirt another place,” marina manager Tom Hogeman said.
And by “dirt,” he means 75,000 cubic meters of soil from the bottom of the bay, and using that soil to improve the shoreline.
“To help improve areas of the shoreline and give us a bigger bay, [a] deeper bay to operate out of,” he said. “And accommodate boats with a deeper keel, bigger boats, sailboats, power boats.”
The project has been dubbed the “Big Dig.” A deeper marina would help curb problems with low water depth and make the boating season longer.
“By doing this, our goal is to actually extend our season hopefully a month on either side to make it longer,” McBride said.
It’s still very early in the process, with the first steps of relocating the existing marina offices starting in the summer, and the entire project slated to take ten years or more to complete. Parking lots would be moved away from the water and closer to the road; the beach would be moved or extended; and a new restaurant are all part of the plans.
“Move all the experiences where you’re closer to the water, you’re touching the water, and have the parking be a little further out,” McBride added.
The town is also looking at all-season options including ice skating or an all-season restaurant to draw people into the marina all year long. New ways of connecting Main Street and the waterfront are also being discussed.
The total cost of the project is expected to cost between $10 and $12 million over the course of ten or more years.
For more background, head to Town of Frisco website.
