While the number of lakes remains constant, these limited resources are seeing increasing pressure of all kinds - from permanent vacation homes, to commercial development, to hunting, fishing and boating. This is particularly true in Ashland County. Hildebrandt said the county needed to have the ability to tailor regulations to fit the environment proposed for development. One of the most important tools for fitting building and development plans to what the environment can safely handle is lakes classification, according Fred Gould of the Northwest Regional Planning Commission. For the past three years, the commission has been assisting Ashland County in developing lakes classification criteria.
Classification is a basic tool used by resource managers.
Applying these techniques to lakes and determining the level of development each lake can handle creates a playing field where all the participants know the rules and can adjust their proposed development plans accordingly. In an ideal world, each lake would be classified individually based on the development it can handle given the lake's unique physical properties. However, doing the kind of research work needed for such a scheme on Ashland County's 156 lakes would be an administrative and political nightmare. Instead, using factors including hydrology, average depth, surface area, shoreland configuration, sensitivity to pollution and recreational use, a three-tier classification system has been developed. This approach allows guidelines that reflect the lake's capacity to support development.