Lake Anna Civic Association (LACA) President Greg Baker presided over a President’s Council Meeting held at the Belmont Community Center on November 15, where members of Lake Anna HOAs gathered to hear the group’s agenda for 2025.

  Baker told those present LACA was focused on five goals: 1) annual funding for HAB remediation, 2) funding for freshwater HAB testing, 3) restoring funding for the Department of Wildlife Resources’ Conservation Police, 4) short term rentals (STRs) no greater than capacity of drainfield and 5) a 500’ setback from the shore and 20’ minimumn for wake surfing.

  “The Department of Wildlife Resources is authorized for approximately 182 CPOs for the entire state. That works out to about two CPOs per county. Currently, there are only 160-170 of those positions filled. You can imagine how hard it is for the department to manage their resources and provide coverage to Lake Anna, with such a small force. To make matters worse, CPOs often make less than their counterparts in other policing organizations,” Baker told Lake Anna Life & Times.  

  He also noted that the Virginia General Assembly passed House Bill 38 back in 1998, which authorized DWR to receive sales tax on sales of wildlife equipment (like fishing poles and guns). HB38 also capped the annual amount to $13 million dollars. Unfortunately, that cap has not changed in almost 25 years. Because of inflation, a dollar in 1998 would need to be $1.83 today to have the same value. DWR is vastly underfunded because of this un-updated situation.

   Regarding STRs, Baker noted “LACA is not opposed to STRs at Lake Anna, but LACA is opposed to renting beyond the capacity of septic systems and renting rooms that do not provide proper egress.”

  LACA will also push for state code to be changed to create a uniform setback from the shoreline and a minimum depth of 20’ for wakesurfing in lakes like Anna. Citing survey data that showed LACA members were very concerned about the effect of wake surfing on shorelines, docks, boats and others in the water swimming or paddling and national data that asserts 500’ is the distance at which wakes created by wakesurfing boats dissipate, Baker showed a slide of Lake Anna with all areas within 500’ of the shoreline and less than 20’ highlighted. Most of up lake was marked and therefore would be off limits to wakesurfing with this proposed change.