EUSTIS, Fla. \u2013 Eustis city leaders are considering repealing a 20-year-old ordinance that bans gas-powered boats on Lake Gracie, a move residents say could threaten years of work to protect the small lake and its wildlife.<\/p>\n
The possible change comes after Florida passed the Boaters Freedom Act last year. The law prevents local governments from banning boats based on the type of fuel or energy they use.<\/p>\n
Residents who live around Lake Gracie said the state law is unfair and frustrating, especially because they believe the existing ordinance has helped preserve the lake for two decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a private lake,\u201d Eustis resident Harry Crook said. \u201cNow you get Tallahassee telling us how to run our lake. And we\u2019ve been doing a pretty good job of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lake Gracie is not the only waterway affected. The new law also impacts the Pine Meadows Conservation Area in Eustis, Lake Elsie in Tavares, and Lake Yale and Blue Lake in Lake County, along with other waterways across Central Florida.<\/p>\n
Dennis Kirst, a Eustis resident who helped push for the Lake Gracie ban in 2003, said the ordinance was created after a resident put a jet ski on the lake, causing noise and disruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just creating chaos out there with the noise,\u201d Kirst said.<\/p>\n
Since then, residents said they have worked to restore the lake by clearing cattails, improving water quality and protecting wildlife. They worry allowing gas-powered boats again could harm those efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s appropriate for the size of the lake,\u201d Kirst said. \u201cPlus the fact that it\u2019s basically a wildlife sanctuary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents also raised concerns about noise and the potential impact of larger engines on the lake.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving an unlimited-size engine on the lake would impact water quality,\u201d Kirst said. \u201cBut the noise it would generate would disrupt the tranquility of the lake that we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirst and other residents plan to attend the Eustis City Council meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday to share their concerns before city leaders make a decision.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EUSTIS, Fla. \u2013 Eustis city leaders are considering repealing a 20-year-old ordinance that bans gas-powered boats on Lake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1890,14477,28,30,29,2174,4103],"class_list":["post-364900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-boat","tag-eustis","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-lake-county","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}