Posted: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:42 AM - 11,897 Readers

By: Jenna Hiller

A few people on Lake Travis could lose their lakefront status homes due to changes in property lines through eminent domain.

Marlon Coplin knows lakefront property on Lake Travis. He's helped develop 16 miles of the shoreline, and he carefully picked the site for his lakefront home that he built in 2007.

"I picked this spot specifically because of the water and our ability to own all the way out to center line of the lake, thinking that no one could ever take away or steal our land," Coplin said.

Now a new water intake barge that Cedar Park has been considering since 2006 could change his property line.

Cedar Park is concerned that without rain, the current intake barge might be grounded by next summer. So, the city plans to build a new one in front of the lakefront property that Coplin and his neighbors own.

"They knew about the project three years ago. It would have been important three years ago before myself and my neighbors had any structures out here," Coplin said.

Coplin and several of his neighbors found out about the barge 60 days ago through certified mail.

He said Cedar Park's looking for a 400 ft. easement, meaning that when the lake is low, he wouldn't have waterfront property.

On Monday, the City of Cedar Park said the barge is just temporary.

"If the lake levels were to rise back up again, the new one would go away again, and we'd go back to using our current one that's right outside of our water treatment plant. Once the permanent deep-water intake is built, both of these will no longer be used," Cedar Park Communications Manager Melanie Carr said.

Coplin and his neighbors don't buy that.

"I have no reason to believe them. If it truly was temporary, then why not put it in writing that it's temporary? Our fear is that they're having problems with their regional deep water intake. Our fear is that they're going to turn this land here into the regional deep water intake," Coplin said.

He and other affected landowners say they would offer their land for free if Cedar Park would agree to only use it during a severe drought.

The City of Cedar Park would not comment on the land issue because of pending litigation. The city plans to start construction on the water intake barge in September.

The work should be complete by April.