December 1, 2025
Written by Joel Benson, Carver County Local News
The Chanhassen City Council has decided to move forward with a request to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to raise Lake Minnewashta’s Slow-No Wake (SNW) elevation — the water level at which strict boating restrictions apply — from 945.0’ to 945.5’.
The motion passed by a 5-0 vote at the council’s Nov. 10 meeting. After DNR approval, which requires a 120-day review period, the council will be able to adopt the modification to city code at a future meeting, before next summer’s boating season.
City Council’s action follows a Citizen Action Request received this year requesting to raise Lake Minnewashta’s SNW elevation to 945.9’, which is the lake’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 100-year floodplain elevation. The FEMA 100-year floodplain of a lake maps the areas of that lake with a 1% annual chance of flooding, i.e. the floodplain expected to occur once in 100 years.
FEMA 100-year floodplains are not standard determinants of lakes’ SNW elevations, which are determined, according to a Chanhassen city staff report, “through analysis of site-specific conditions for each lake or water body, including shoreline characteristics, adjacent land use, vegetation, water level history, and the relationship to nearby infrastructure.”
Public input is another key factor to setting SNW elevations and is a legal requirement for modifying SNW restrictions in city code.
“Before a SNW restriction can be adopted or modified, DNR rules require that a public hearing be held to gather feedback from affected property owners, recreational users and other stakeholders,” says the report.
A public hearing was held during the City Council meeting, at which the council intended to discuss and evaluate an SNW elevation for Lake Minnewashta of 945.3’. More than 30 members of the public attended the hearing and 17 spoke.
The council had determined at a previous work session to dismiss the requested 945.9’ SNW elevation, citing city staff’s findings that street flooding would occur at this water level.
Mayor Elise Ryan, opening the public hearing, spoke on the council’s decision.
“The reason why,” Ryan said, “is if it got to the FEMA high-water mark, we’re not talking about boat wakes. We’re talking about flooding.”
Advocates of raising Lake Minnewashta’s SNW elevation argued that the lake’s current restrictions are too rigid.
“Summer is precious,” said Gary Bhojwani, who lives on Lake Minnewashta. “When we lose even one day, it’s a big deal. At the Slow-No Wake level we currently have, in the last two years, we lost 34 days.”
SNW restrictions have also been triggered by high water levels on the Fourth of July during the past two years, restricting lake use during peak season and impacting the annual waterski show.
According to an analysis completed by Chanhassen city staff on historical water level data, assuming the lake’s current SNW elevation of 945.0’, 10% to 12% of Lake Minnewashta’s boating season over the past 20 years would have fallen under SNW restrictions. The analysis determined that an SNW elevation of 945.3’, on the other hand, would only have triggered restrictions once in the last 20 years — during historic flooding in 2014 that surpassed the lake’s FEMA 100-year floodplain.
Those opposed to raising the SNW elevation raised environmental and property concerns.
“Minnewashta is a challenged lake — it’s impaired for aquatic life and it’s only a C+ lake,” said Kevin Zahler, a board member of the Lake Minnewashta Preservation Association, alluding to the lake’s “C+” DNR classification. “My hope is that my grandson, and his grandchildren, and their grandchildren will be able to enjoy the use of this lake. That’s at least a hundred years out. We’re not going in the right direction.”
Other residents spoke on impacts to lakeshore properties, especially vulnerable properties sitting on lots at lower elevations or with more gradual inclines.
“As much as I believe that everybody has rights and wants to play and do all this stuff,” said Helen Gunther, another resident on the lake, “it’s great, provided that the recreation that other people want to do doesn’t destroy or ruin the property that I have.”
Gunther raised concerns about SNW restriction enforcement — concerns voiced by many others at the hearing.
“What needs to go along with that No Wake restriction is some enforcement,” she said. “I cannot tell you how many times this past summer, during the days that there was No Wake, I saw boats and fishermen and surfers flying by.”
City staff later clarified that the Carver County Sheriff’s Office is responsible for SNW enforcement on Chanhassen’s area lakes.
“The city has no ability to do more enforcement,” said Charles Howley, director of Public Works. “If it’s a persistent problem, we should lobby the county to make more resources available to address the problem — easier said than done of course.”
Mayor Ryan requested that city staff find out from the Carver County Sheriff’s Office how often they were on Lake Minnewashta last summer, and how often they were on the lake during SNW restrictions.
During the following council discussion, Council Member Jerry McDonald proposed to consider a higher SNW elevation of 945.5’.
“The 945.3’ that we looked at seemed as though it would be a good number,” McDonald said. “But then, what I looked at is at 945.3’, we’ve hit that a number of times in the past couple of years, and that would have shut the lake down — and I don’t think that’s a good idea. What I would like to do is to propose 945.5’, because that gets us to a level where I don’t think you’re going to be impacted by the rise and fall of the lake.”
McDonald’s statement contradicts city staff’s findings that an SNW elevation of 945.3’ would have triggered SNW restrictions only once in the last 20 years.
Mayor Ryan and other council members spoke in support of either SNW elevation for Lake Minnewashta, 945.3’ or 945.5’.
“I think this is an enforcement problem,” Ryan said, “and that is what leads me to lean more towards 945.5’. … With 945.3’, I’m afraid that we’re going to put ourselves in a precarious situation again. 945.5’ gives a little more leeway to allow residents to utilize the lake at leisure, and I think that is a number that I would be comfortable with. I support either 945.3’ or 945.5’.”
McDonald made the motion that the City Council request the DNR’s approval to raise Lake Minnewashta’s SNW elevation to 945.5’, and furthermore motioned to reduce the SNW waiting period from three days to one — a measure the attending public generally supported. Council member Mark van Oven seconded the motion, and the motion passed 5-0.
