The City of Naples is seeking additional public input from our residents on the design plan options that are now 60% complete that are being proposed to improve and enhance the water quality, functionality, and aesthetics of three lakes within the City. The three lakes are 15th Ave N. Lake (Lake 19), Spring Lake (Lake 11), and East Lake (31). The majority of the comments received from residents during the first public comment period in July were positive and relayed support for the project. Several comments were not in favor of including floating islands as an option and this feedback has been incorporated into the updated plans by removing floating islands from the proposed plans in all three lakes. Plans for East Lake have also changed to more efficiently accommodate stormwater runoff volumes that can potentially occur during high rainfall events. It is still designed to be a shallow treatment wetland planted with a variety of aquatic and shoreline vegetation. Plans now include two deeper areas in the center, two overflow structures, and two aerators. An open-water channel is still proposed to allow flows to bypass planted areas in high rainfall events.
All three lakes are being proposed to be dredged removing accumulated sediment and pollutants as well as restoring historical depths. A variety of other improvements are also being considered including aerators with floc logs, creation of littoral shelves, removal of exotics, a sidewalk extension (Lake 19), nutrient separating baffle boxes, and a wetland treatment area (East Lake). Updated design and planting plans for each lake along with more details on the efficiency of pollutant removal for these improvements have been provided on the project website. We encourage those that have interest in these projects to visit
NaplesLakesImprovement.com to find out more detailed information and for the opportunity to provide comments from the website. The comment period is through September 27, 2020.
