I think it's fun to have at least one restaurant on the lake; it's too bad there wasn't more lakeshore dedicated to a spot for business development away from residential areas. I can see where it's difficult for both the neighbors and owner at Captain Jack's.

On a side note, maybe someone knows if the Prior Lake Yacht Club site has potential to become more of a destination on Prior Lake? (or maybe it already is - I don't go out on the lake much). From an outsider's perspective, it seems like a prime spot for a country club-type upscale restaurant/event center on the lake. Any thoughts from local boaters on what's happening at this site?

C.J.'s became a Marina with 85 dnr and city approved boat slips, the parking lot holds 58 vehicles. Also, the city allowed a 2 AM.close time, not considering that all 58 vehicles make Huge amounts of noise leaving or that since smoking is now outdoors, new Noise, people on cell phones' all forms of conversation bounces and carries for blocks. The late night drinkers feel especially 'entitled' to be "LOUD and ROWDY', the streets are dark and I guess with the alcohol, "all jacked up', they feel they can be as loud as they want. I have asked the owners repeatedly to post some kind of sign to "keep the noise down, you are in a residential neighborhood". We have asked for fewer events as this creates a traffic invasion, when 500 extra cars are circling and keep turning in driveways and backing out. Our streets are 21 feet 9 inches of blacktop, they were not built to handle this kind of traffic. We do not have sidewalks, it is very dangerous for adults to walk on much less children on bikes, skateboards

Startled awake from people hollering across the parking lot, was hopeing it wouldn't last so long but some must have gone back in to continue partying and then began loading up the rest with another long round of noise. Most places will deliver food to Wagon Bridge Marina,even Fongs.

By asking that, are you thinking that the group that has the biggest tax impact has a right to the spot on the lake, and the others should leave?

Noconfidence, you say people should not call the police or owners when they hear noise, but actually, the message at the last council meeting was that people should indeed call.

After Police Chief Bill O'Rourke cited statistics showing that only four noise complaints have been made this year, Mayor Jack Haugen made a comment that if people are so concerned about noise, he'd think the number of calls would be higher. My impression was that the city wants people to report complaints so they at least have a record of them.

I do see your point, though, that residents have to expect some noise when they live close to restaurant/bar. Like others have said, there has to be a compromise of some kind made. But I think everyone's idea of "noisy" is different, so I'm not entirely sure how that problem could be addressed.

C.J's sold 65 parking spots for their boat slip customers, they only have 58 parking spots in their lot, so everyday from april to Oct, they have a problem,and so does the neighborhood. The building is small, only 2 bathrooms. The new owners KNEW this was in a RESIDENTIAL area. They say they want to run a "clean business", but they promote the Bar business the most, sell t-shirts 68 reasons to get DRUNK and STUPID at Captain Jack's. They have bar olympics and bring in Capt'n Morgan's Rum GIRLS, have huge events that bring in hundreds of vehicles, noise,litter, and DON't CARE, lets see how many MORE PEOPLE we can get here. The late night crowd is the worst, it becomes a very "HARD ROCKIN, HARD DRINKIN, VERY LOUD CROWD, gunning their engines, LOOK AT ME, circling the parking lot, then accelerating up and down Green Heights, mufflers?, lots of motorcycles, just what you want to hear at 2 A.M.

The muffler issue for vehicles is a city-wide problem(but I'm sure it sounds worse when they're all together in one parking lot.)

20-22 Hours of NOISE EVERYDAY Look at Downtown Prior Lake the streets were narrowed, that was brilliant and there are 4 bars there.

Today the noise started at 7am - the garbage trucks try to come in as early as 5am but we call the city and they remind garbage hauler of ordinace. yes, the noise goes until 3am. I've been awoken three times in last 10 days around midnight. mostly boaters leaving the bar.

There are MANY MANY home owners effected by the parking and the noise. They collectively pay much tax than one business. But that is irrelevant. A resident has rights regardless of size of taxes - the small homeowner has same rights as a large one in our country.

Restaurant is FAR different than we we purchased - back then it was a tavern that was not even open very often. No noise ever ever came from there.

I was looking up information about Tim Mahoney's concert at Captain Jacks when I came across these posts. I've lived in Prior Lake for two years now. No, I do not live right next to Captain Jacks, but I can say that part of the reason I liked Prior Lake when looking for a place to live was the lake and Captain Jacks. To be a 2 minute drive from a restaurant on the lake is a major attraction to Prior Lake. It is unfortunate that it is surrounded by residental areas. It is too bad that it isn't set up like Lake Minnetonka where Maynard's is surrounded by more businesses than residential areas but I agree with the other posts- you knew that bar was there when you bought a house close to it. Concerts like Tim Mahoney's are only going to help all of the Prior Lake businesses to thrive. Just think of all the people that may stop to get gas or those that may stop at the other local bars before or after his concert, those who may stop at Village Market to pick up some beer or something like batteries for their camera that they forgot to get earlier....all those little stops add up and all those little stops help the businesses of our community. If Prior Lake doesn't continue to be attractive, then all the businesses suffer and once they suffer and begin to shut down...who makes up their taxes? And if Prior Lake isn't attractive, imagine what would happen to the housing market for us.

I find 25 gas drive-offs hard to believe.
I cover the police beat and I know for a fact there weren't 25 gas drive-offs in one day or I would've written a story about that!
To be honest, I I've never seen anywhere near 25 gas drive-offs reported to police in Prior Lake in a week.
There is a possibility that some drive-offs weren't reported to police, but then how would you know about them?
I understand making a point, but let's try to stick to the facts.

I think it would be hard to say how many homes are impacted by Captain Jack's.

I added a Scott County map to the text at the beginning of this discussion topic. While I could quantify how many houses are in the area (on same street, within a block, two blocks, etc.)

I don't think there's a way to accurately quantify the number of people impacted by issues at Captain Jack's other than through the number of complaints to police that are documented and charting the number and radius from where those complaints originate?

Any other ideas on how to evaluate the impact?

Without amenities such as the restaurant, and WagonWheel Marina (which is currently for sale), there is very little to differentiate Prior Lake from some of the other south of the river lakes, let alone justify the premium in property values. Since Laurie Criego was nice enough to write a letter to the editor, lets use her house as an example. Scott County currently values her house at $780,000, with a current tax liability of $9900. Assuming this lake becomes no different than that of, lets say Spring Lake, what would happen to that valuation and subsequent tax base? A quick search of homes for sale on Spring Lake with a similar size foundation (2100sf) finds homes for sale in the 400k to 500k range. Quite a difference from Laurie's current value. Granted many other factors to consider, but I think you would find the same theme on other area lakes, such as Crystal, Cedar, Fish, ect... So fast forward to a lake without amenities and lower property values. Given any thought as to how the budget will be met with the decreased property tax revenue? I for one will immediately challenge my valuation if something were to happen to C.J.s. I suspect others will as well. There is also a reason that little tavern is no longer there. Just about every business that I have ever seen operates on a model that needs growth to survive. Without growth, most businesses will fail, as they ultimately not be able to keep up with the fixed costs of doing business, such as property tax, utilities, ect. It is very rare to see a business continually operate self sufficiently at the economic breakeven level for profit. To restrain a business from natural growth, is surely condemning it to failure.