Man-Made Lakes: A Splash With Home Buyers

At the rate lakes are popping up in the Southland, Minnesota may soon have a rival.

Of course, the 10,000 lakes that Minnesota touts on its auto license plates are natural, unlike most of those in Southern California.

The vast majority of Southland lakes are man-made and have been dug in the past 20 years as part of residential developments. And there's no end in sight, for good commercial reasons.

"(Home) models on a lake make an incredible statement," said consultant Jeffery S. Meyers of the Meyers Group. "In today's market, when buyers must drive an hour each way (to and from work), there must be something to draw them. . . . A lake is an attraction."

Added Sanford Goodkin, a real estate consultant with Peat Marwick Main & Co./Goodkin:

"There are three primary amenities builders use to attract buyers--golf courses, tennis courts and lakes. A golf course attracts the user as well as those who want open space. Tennis courts arouse limited interest, but water has the most universal appeal.

"Water is essential to life. People have clustered next to it ever since our existence as tadpoles, squiggling out into the mud. People like to be able to say, 'I live on the shores of Gitche Gumee.' "

Meyers agreed. "Builders look to recreational amenities to determine the identity or aura of a community. Lakes have proven to be one of the top draws," he said.

The marketing decision by home builders to provide water as an amenity has spawned an industry that has experienced slow but discernible growth since the late 1960s.

J. Harlan Glenn, owner of an Orange County company that builds lakes, has seen his business develop from four or five projects a year when the company was formed in 1973 to a current annual average of 175.

Statistics on the number of man-made lakes in Southern California have not been compiled. Nor are there comparison figures, but Lake Arrowhead, 185 feet at the deepest point, probably has the greatest depth and the 124-acre Lake Mission Viejo is certainly one of the largest.

It takes an average of one to three years from conception to completion of a man-made lake, Glenn explained. There are many variables, but it costs $30,000 to $50,000 an acre to build a 30-acre lake, excluding land and excavation costs.

Joe Kepner, director of marketing for Warmington Co., developers of Moreno Valley Ranch, said the development's 35-acre lake cost $5 million for land, design, construction and filling.