File photo
File photo
The City of Galesburg has conducted a feasibility study regarding the expansion of Lake Storey.
According to the city website, the lake was built in the late 1920s by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Originally, the lake was named Santa Fe but was changed to its present name for W.B. Storey, who was president of the railway. In 1952, the Santa Fe Railway handed over the deed to the city.
The existing lake is about 132 acres and expanding it would require a planning area of 925 acres, including 72 parcels of land and impacting eight houses.
Greg Weykamp, owner of Edgewater Resources, presented the findings and explored some of the potential benefits. Those include the attraction of visitors and residents to the city, opportunities for public recreation, support for local business recruiting, increased tax revenue, enhanced quality of life, and the use of private investment to create public lake and waterfront access, according to the Register Mail.
“The fundamental thing that we like to be able to do is leverage development pressure in a way that’s based on community support and community involvement and community envisioning to achieve public goals with basically private investments,” Weykamp said.
The study included physical feasibility, construction costs, real estate assessment, a financial assessment, and an outline of the implementation strategy. No decision was made on how to proceed but likely there will be another more comprehensive study in the future.
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