Posted on Tue, Oct. 30, 2007

I wondered how Lake Norman got to be the Catawba's most developed lake, so Rick Howard took me on a tour of his past and future.

We drove down Langtree Road, the peninsula in southern Iredell County that Howard's family moved to in 1963. That was the year Duke Power flooded 50 square miles of Piedmont clay, creating the largest body of fresh water in the state.

As a boy, Howard piloted his little johnboat after dark by only a half-dozen shoreline lights.

"We were in wilderness," he said. "And then it changed."

Howard, now 54, will soon break ground on an $800 million condo-hotel-retail complex off Interstate 77 near his childhood home. A 12-story lakefront hotel will rise on the field that, as a teenager, he fertilized with chicken manure.

Duke built Norman, like the other Catawba lakes, to make electricity. But by creating 520 miles of shoreline near a growing city, it also set the pace for real estate development. Weekend cabins gave way to the handsome homes that embroider the shoreline. Sleek boats with more square footage than some of the old cabins bob at marinas.

I know the territory. My wife and I moved to Davidson, a few miles away, in 1985.

We're the kind who cuss the traffic and grieve the pastures lost to endless waves of new houses. Yet we can't help but enjoy new restaurants and supermarkets and movie theaters.

Howard believes he's helping shape the lake's destiny.

"Something was going to happen here," he told me, "and we have a chance to do it right."

From electricity to real estate

Duke Power designed Norman, its final Catawba reservoir, to wring the last watt of hydropower from the river. But the lake also put Duke in the real estate business.The utility first bought land for the lake in the 1920s for less than $44 an acre, says a corporate history, then bought more as construction of the lake began decades later. All told, Duke bought nearly 64,000 acres for a 32,000-acre lake.

Some owners would sell only large tracts, leaving Duke with more land than it needed. Duke later dropped plans for some power plants, and their sites also became surplus acreage.

Duke owned half of Norman's waterfront when it filled. It first leased lakefront lots for $120 a year, then sold thousands in the 1970s for about $8,000 each.

Lots now go for at least $350,000 "just to say you're on the water," said Cornelius real estate broker Frank Free. More desirable lots sell for $500,000 to $600,000.

The lake has become its own diverse community -- retired Charlotteans, New Yorkers drawn to the merest glimpse of water, Californians thrilled to find what $1 million can still buy.

The water is wide and generally clean, the sunsets stunning.

But failing sewage systems sometimes chase swimmers from coves. Just Sunday, a broken pipe in Cornelius dumped 27 gallons of sewage into the lake, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities said.

Traffic snarls rival any Charlotte nightmare, and weekend boaters whip the lake into a froth.

Rivers of eroding mud flow into the water from construction sites.

And drought shows what money can't buy. The receding shoreline, its clay banks exposed, oddly recalls the lake's old filling-up days.

Fear of excess

Rick Howard is part of the problem, his critics say.

His Langtree at the Lake will only make traffic worse, they say. The large scale of the 127-acre complex will dwarf the homes near it.

"It's going to have an extremely negative impact on our overall quality of life, due to the traffic," said Dennis Coogle, who lives on the Langtree peninsula and challenged Howard's plan. "It's going to change it beyond anybody's imagination."

Changes around Langtree are already happening at warp speed.

Howard drove me through Mount Mourne, the pre-Revolutionary War community just across I-77 where he spent his youngest years.

A construction crane loomed over the new corporate headquarters of Lowe's, the home-improvement retailer, where 2,000 people work.

A scraped-bare tract awaited a developer's 650 houses.

Three huge white oaks shaded grazing horses at a farm that will become Langtree's golf course.

`Good for the community'

In Langtree, Howard sees something special.With its brick, stone and timber condos, shopping, public lakefront trails and native plantings, he said, the project will be good for the community and the environment.

He could have made more money, he said, building houses like those crowding the Brawley School Road peninsula just west of Langtree.

"We looked for something to do that we felt would be good for the community," Howard said. "It wasn't about making a lot of money."

The condos will sell for $600,000 to $3 million. Marketing hasn't begun, but buyers have already reserved 150 of the initial 272 units.

And Norman will take another step toward a fate set up 40 years ago.

Wednesday: Reporter Elizabeth Leland heads to the next lake downstream, Mountain Island, Charlotte's drinking-water source.

Understanding Lake Norman

Filled in 1963, Lake Norman supports hydroelectric, coal-fired and nuclear power plants.

The look

Fashionable houses, big boats. It was 6.6 feet below full pond Monday.

Distinctive feature

A shoreline spanning 520 miles, about the distance between Charlotte and Philadelphia.

Check this out

Mecklenburg County operates three waterfront parks: Blythe Landing, Jetton Park and Ramsey Creek Park. www.parkandrec.com.

What you can do

Take part in Big Sweep, North Carolina's annual cleanup of waterways. www.ncbigsweep.org.

The Series

Sunday: The source of the

threatened Catawba

River.

Monday: The struggle to

save Lake James.

Today: A developer's plan

for his land around

Lake Norman.

Wednesday: Protecting

Mountain Island Lake,

Charlotte's water supply.

Thursday: A lakefront

landfill at Wylie.

Friday: At Landsford

Canal, a surprising

water garden.

Saturday: A revival

for Great Falls, S.C.

Sunday: At Lake Wateree,

how many demands

can one river take? A CRY FOR THE CATAWBA | Part 3 of 8