Court issues final approval of EVMWD settlement

As anticipated in a report earlier this year, the Riverside Superior Court issued its final approval of the settlement agreement the Canyon Lake POA and Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District worked out regarding Canyon Lake’s shoreline.

Now that the settlement is formally approved, the suit will now proceed to its conclusion next month when the judgment is expected to be entered by the court.

The lake, including the shoreline, is owned by EVMWD. The POA leases the lake and shoreline from EVMWD. At the discretion of the POA and the water district, lakefront homeowners can construct and maintain certain shoreline and lake improvements. The suit filed by the POA was over disputes over this shoreline.

The main details of the settlement are:

• All existing encroachments up to the settlement date on the shoreline/lake will be grandfathered.
• All lakefront homeowners will follow a new process for constructing shoreline/lake improvements. This process will include a License Agreement between the homeowner, the POA and EVMWD. This application, which will need to include a survey of the area on which the improvement will be located, must be approved by the POA and EVMWD.
• In order to standardize and clarify property rights regarding the improvements along the shoreline and the lake, the court granted limited class certification to all lakefront homeowners “for settlement purposes only.” These lakefront class members will receive additional detailed information on the settlement.

The Lake Lease is one of the POA’s highest priorities. Prior to this lease, back before the first homes were constructed in Canyon Lake, body-contact to the lake’s water was prohibited. Railroad Canyon Reservoir’s primary purpose was to hold water for water district use and only allowed fishing boats on its surface. There was no swimming allowed in the lake.

Hence, with the development of the Canyon Lake community, came the lake lease and all the recreation that the lake currently provides its residents. Protecting that lake recreation is critical, of course, to the community’s way of life.

In 2013, the POA and EVMWD began negotiations over the terms of an extension of the lake lease, which resulted in the addition of the 5th Amendment to the lease in 2017.

The POA and EVMWD have engaged in many discussions over the years about allowing homeowners to request improvements along the shoreline/lake. Thousands of enhancements along the shoreline/lake were reviewed and some challenges faced, as many of the agreements were inconsistent or not recorded.

There appeared to be some incongruity as to where the border of the lake and shore zone actually lied, and the parties wanted a definitive determination as to where that important boundary is.

The parties also wanted to create a uniform process for future encroachments into the lake and onto the shore zone, which involves all the necessary stakeholders, i.e. POA, POA members and EVMWD. The goal was to create a standardized process so applying for lakefront improvements could be as consistent, fair and predictable as possible.

The POA brought suit against EVMWD to protect its interests and come to an agreement on these issues. Its efforts have proven worthwhile with this final court approval of the settlement, which will be finalized next month.