Bullhead City Council Work Session on River Access - April 15, 2025
Bullhead City Council Work Session on River Access - April 15, 2025\n\nThe Bullhead City Council held a special work session on April 15, 2025, to discuss public access to the Colorado River via city street rights-of-way. The meeting focused on long-standing complaints from adjacent property owners about trash, vandalism, drug use, and safety hazards at these informal access points, while balancing the public's desire for river access. No formal votes were taken, but the council directed staff to prepare an ordinance for the next regular meeting to address two specific access points: Lakeside Drive and River Gardens.\n\n### Public Comments & Testimony\n- Susan Mendonca (resident at 1001 Riverfront Drive) described severe ongoing problems at the Lakeside Drive spillway, including drug use, needles, human feces, vandalism, and safety hazards. She requested the city install a fence, allow her to purchase the land, or abandon it to adjacent homeowners, citing a precedent where the city fenced off a similar spillway at 699-703 Riverfront Drive. She noted the area was originally posted with no access and expressed frustration with the city's lack of maintenance and enforcement.\n- Scotty (self-identified as a Bullhead City resident) opposed closing any access points, warning of legal risks from California's Coastal Commission precedent. He argued that enforcement of existing laws (noise, parking, homeless) was inadequate and urged the city to enforce codes rather than restrict access. He also claimed that if the city does not periodically block or record access, the public could gain permanent legal easements.\n\n### Discussion Items\n- City Manager Toby Cotter presented an overview of all public river access points, noting that many are narrow, rocky drainage corridors without amenities. He highlighted that the city has invested in developed parks (Community Park, Rotary Park, Veterans Memorial Park, Nature Center) with restrooms and trash receptacles, which are free to residents. He outlined options: sell parcels with drainage easements, lease to neighbors, install gates, improve properties, or close access points. He noted that the council's 2016 policy was to keep all points open, but circumstances have changed due to increased complaints and available park alternatives.\n- Council members debated a case-by-case approach. Councilmember (unnamed in transcript, but likely Councilmember Rodney or another) emphasized the need to consider each location individually based on neighbor preferences and safety. Mayor D'Amico toured the sites and reported on conditions: he recommended clearing overgrown vegetation at Lakeside Drive to reduce hiding places and improve safety, and suggested strict enforcement of no-parking signs. He opposed changing the existing 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. closure ordinance but asked about restricting amplified music. Councilmember Ronnie (likely) recounted riding his bike past all points daily, noting that Lakeside Drive is dangerous and overgrown, and that River Gardens was already fenced due to liability. He strongly opposed closing access points, recalling the public backlash during COVID when the city fenced them off. Councilmember (Rodney?) supported closing dangerous ones (Lakeside, River Gardens) and recommended surveying all adjacent homeowners via mail to gauge sentiment. Councilmember (Karen?) agreed with case-by-case review and closure of unsafe points. City Attorney Garn Emery advised that if an access point is unsafe, staff can administratively block it off, but a formal ordinance amendment would be appropriate for permanent closure.\n- Councilmember (unidentified) noted that the city receives numerous complaints, especially from non-resident visitors, and that enforcement is challenging on busy weekends. Police reports from last summer show significant issues at these points.\n\n### Key Outcomes\n- No formal action taken (work session).\n- Direction to staff: Bring back an ordinance at the next regular council meeting to amend the public access code (Chapter 15.38) to close Lakeside Drive and River Gardens access points. The ordinance would remove these from the list of designated public access points while retaining drainage functions.\n- Next steps: Staff will conduct public outreach to homeowners in the affected neighborhoods before the next meeting. The council will discuss and possibly vote on the ordinance at the regular meeting scheduled for later in April 2025 (date not specified in transcript).\n- Additional considerations: The council may also explore removing vegetation and improving maintenance at remaining access points, but no specific directives were given.
Meeting Transcript
Consideration. But as we've talked through these over the years, they have provided a neighborhood area for people to go to walk, to fish, to dip their their feet in the river. So essentially the issue that we're talking about is you know what to do, what to do with the neighbors who are upset, what to do with these access points. Here recently, uh, and you'll see in the presentation that uh public works director Johnson actually did block one of them off because it's a current safety hazard. So to in order to take that fence down, we have to fix this. There's a sizable drop-off at the end that's a safety hazard right now. And in order to take the fence down, if that's your desire, we'll have to fix it. It has not been maintained appropriately. So I'll start the presentation and walk walk through what's in our packet. Uh so this is the map. These are all of the what I would call public legal access points. There's other access points to the river that are private. These are the public ones that are in question that are available to the public. Some like at uh Playa del Rio are neighborhood launches and neighborhood access, but we also have those. Some are in the packet at other condos and apartments, but this primarily is your public access points. So the first one is Davis Camp. No discussion really needed here, other than they have created more beaches uh in the central part of Davis Camp and then all of North and South Beach. It's a massive area for those who live on the north side of town. Just south of that is Heritage Park. The city recently closed this, even though we are the you know owners and operators. We have not just what's the county gave us just south of the bridge, we also have the 12 acres that the state gave us that uh the mayor lobbied for a few years ago. So we have a pretty significant park there on the river that we're not open to the public right now because it's we get overrun with people and we do not have bathrooms and trash. Uh, if that were open to the public, um, it would be a nightmare for us right now. We wouldn't be able to handle the amount of trash and people that would be going there. So until we have a better system there and an actual development, we need to keep that closed. So as you go south, uh 4th Street. This is uh was platted in 1942 while it was the county 60 feet in width. Um this one, the two property owners were so disgusted, they just took it upon themselves to improve it without our permission. So since that time, we've had to bring them into compliance, and uh, we did work with them through a council action. Um, so they are legal, they are in conformance, and this is open to the public, even though all the improvements you see here were done by the two uh nearby property owners because they were not happy with what was happening there at 4th Street at 3rd Street. Um, again, unimproved. Um it's it's a residential area, it's not a really good place to go and hang out. The river is pretty wicked right there, um, but it is open and accessible and certainly works for drainage. Second street, very similar, not the greatest spot to uh safely gain access to the river, but it is there. Um rarely maintained by by anyone, including us, and that's part of I think part of the predicament that we have as well, even though the policy directive was to keep it open, we really never budgeted for these. We never really have maintained them well, and if the policy directive is keep them open, we probably have to give much greater consideration to maintenance and liability, trash, policing, etc. If we go south, uh, we of course have community park and all the great things that have happened at community park over the years. The beaches are massive, and the public uh, including our residents get to use them for free, and we all know about the past for people who live outside of the city. Going south of there, the Colorado Rio Vista area. Um, again, this it does have a concrete area that can be used for a boat launch, and we put in the pack it is used as a swim area. I don't know that the neighbors like that it's used as a swim area, but um we do have the sign that uh you could see in that corner, the um the rules and regulations. These are after the last time council talked about it, these are the rules and regulations that Garn had put together to help us enforce some of the rules in these uh street ends. Train um at the uh at the end of train, it's the Emerald Yuld Emerald River Casino and resort across the way. This was in Holiday Highlands. It is used for a boat launch, it is used for swimming, and people put pop-ups and have have neighborhood gatherings down there from time to time. We had a few issues there last summer where the police were involved in ejecting people blocking and parking uh in that area. The neighbors were very upset about that, even though there's no parking signs at a lot of these, um, that does get ignored quite a bit, and police are called. We do get complaints from the neighbors as well about trespassing on their property and on their docks. Um, but lots of times by the time the police get there, maybe they're off the dock or they're not on the property anymore, they take off. It's a lot easier for us to get the cars.
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