There are at least eight significant errors in the $140,000-state-grant-funded plan for Conneaut Lake Park’s future.

In addition, while the plan envisions developing large portions of the park’s property, it offers no estimates on the amount of money the development would raise and there are no appraisals showing the current value of the park’s land. Although no details are included, the plan does state that the revenue raised would pay off the park’s debt, currently estimated at $2.7 million.

Other aspects of the plan appear inconsistent with the needs of the amusement park. For example, all of the park’s parking lots are slated for commercial, retail or residential development. In addition, all of the park’s picnic shelters are slated for retail and commercial development.

The 50-page plan, authored by the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County, is considered key because state agencies and private banks probably won’t consider funding the park without some sense of the facility’s future direction.

However, the plan, which was due in August 2006, was finished six months late. Alliance Director Mark Turner said the delay was necessary because work to complete the plan was more extensive than initially expected.

The delay has left little time for park officials to review the plan and secure funding in order to open this summer. Nonetheless, the park’s court-appointed custodian, LeRoy Stearns, is having the plan studied by the park’s attorney out of concern for the accuracy of the information presented.

Areas of the park and the uses envisioned in the plan include:

- Entertainment – includes the current Beach Club and Dockside facilities with no proposed changes. It also extends from the lakefront to Comstock Street, which includes the current midway and games.

- Recreation is proposed for the area from Comstock to Route 618, including the majority of the rides.

- Future residential with revenues to the park is the area along Route 618 adjacent to the former Jo-Winn Trailer Park, now part of the Snow Waters project.

- Future retail/commercial along Route 618 from Reed Avenue to Inlet Drive. That would encompass the current parking lot and picnic pavilions and a number of residences between Matson Street and Comstock Street. Only a few homes along the corridor — across from the water park — would remain under the plan.

- Future development — Camperland and the adjacent parking lot. The plan doesn’t specify what type of development, but both are identified as revenue zones. Also included in this designation is an area running from Comstock Street through the Convention Center and to the site of the former Flynn House on the lakefront. The park is currently entertaining an offer to sell about 3.3 acres of land including a portion of the lakefront and the site of the former Flynn House, but it makes up only a portion of this future development zone.

- Marinas — two are envisioned. One, labeled a private marina, would be located in front of the former Flynn House site. A public marina would be located in front of Hotel Conneaut.

ERRORS AT A GLANCE: