Lac Lavon - Apple Valley

[2airishuman]

Scouted some metro lake accesses and beaches on Saturday. There was still ice, but it will be gone before long.

I called the phone number on the sign and the helpful people at the Apple Valley Parks dept. are sending me a form to sign that will serve as a season-long permit for me and up to two other people who are with me. Since they were pretty cool about it and there's no charge, I'm not going to get worked up about whether they have the authority under city ordinance to do this or whether such a regulation requires concurrence from the MNDNR.

So, who's in?

[stick500]

Looks like it might have some good vis from the Google maps view. What made you want to dive there?

[2airishuman]

I'm in Northfield and it's the closest diveable lake.

I've read some older posts here and understand that the viz varies depending on the weather and time of the year. Some years ago it was used for open water classes, although I don't believe that's the case any longer.

[scubafreek864]

Sea Ya Diving still does open water classes there. That was one of the lakes I did my open water in. It still has a platform.

[mtb369]

I might be interested, that's just over the river for me...

As I'm a newer diver, I'm curious about the permit thing. Never heard of needing a permit to dive a lake. Is this a common thing that's slipped under my radar?

[2airishuman]

The permit thing is specific to Apple Valley and it's unclear to me whether it has the force of law or would stand up in court, but I play along anyway.

The Mn DNR doesn't allow municipalities to regulate lake or shoreline usage without prior approval of the ordinance by the DNR, and they maintain a master list of approved ordinances. The Apple Valley one isn't on the list.

I play along because there's no fee and they're willing to issue a permit valid for the whole season.

[stick500]

I wasn't around but I heard that some of the city lakes such as Cedar Lake required a permit to go diving at one time.

[Rookie]

With regard to Lac Lavon, You do need a permit from the city and the fee is $50 per year. You also need to notify Law Enforcement that you are diving there as they are not happy to drive by and see divers when they were not notified! You can call Gary at Fantasea Scuba as they still do open water there and are also required to abide by the same rules. This all started because several years ago some fishing guys at the fishing Pier started casting out and trying to hook divers-Law Enforcement was requested at the site to control the angry fisherman! I dive this quite a bit as its close to my house, but the visibilty is typically an arms length at best and 22 feet deep. The main part of the lake outside the bay is even worse as weeds go all the way to the surface! This is an old gravel pit that filled with water. cheers

[2airishuman]

I didn't have to pay a fee for the permit, though they did ask me to call police dispatch prior to each dive ::wahtever::.

Thanks for the history, I figured there had to be a reason.  Someone at one of the dive shops warned me that there are some local residents who don't like scuba divers.

[Claymore]

It doesn't sound like it is deep enough to really hide the bodies well.?