Development and Management Strategies for Duke Power Public Recreation Areas
North and South Carolina

The Louis Berger Group, Inc. assisted Duke Power by devising strategies to optimize the development and management of Duke-owned recreation areas while maintaining compliance with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licenses. These include approximately 75 recreation areas on 11 lakes in North and South Carolina.

The project is divided into three phases. The phases include a review of Duke’s current land management practices, production of a site-specific GIS-based inventory and management system, and presentation of site-specific management and development options.

The first phase reviews current leasing methods and evaluates their strengths and weaknesses, investigates the sources of available funding for the development and operation of facilities, and investigates potential challenges for the development of facilities.

Phase two integrates Duke’s access areas into Berger’s GIS-based Recreation Facility Management Inventory System. This system includes a site plan, detailed location of facilities, data for each area, and hot links to pictures of the sites. This system will enable Duke to document inspections, generate work requests, locate sites with certain characteristics, and generate reports. In addition, phase two provides strategies to optimize long-term development and management, and investigates potential clients and marketing approaches for these clients.

Phase three identifies site characteristics such as: site acreage, existing facilities, vegetation, road access, shoreline access, and adjacent land use. Phase three also discusses site-specific conceptual development plans for 15 sites with the highest lease/sale potential. Recommendations include possible improvements and budget grade cost estimates. Finally, recommended marketing strategies and a recommended implementation plan were developed for future development of the 15 sites.