This is an interesting post. I am very familiar with Lake Conway. It is a fishing lake, full of stumps and trees and very shallow. There are a few nice homes, but mainly it is run down little fishing shacks and mobile homes. It is kind of a giant mosquito breeding ground. Most of the lake is not that nice to look at relative to other lakes. Arkansas is blessed to have lots of lakes, so people have a choice. For boating, skiing, etc, there are multiple beautiful lakes within an hour or so of Little Rock, all with varying levels of development allowed.
On Lake Conway, lots are usually small and the properties not on the water are primarily junk. Problem is they are all jumbled in next to each other. The streets are tiny and sort of incoherent. So you might have a $60k little fishing shack on the water and 50’ away is a 40 year old trailer, or an entire street of them. It is not that expensive to just buy a nice place on Lake Hamilton or Greer’s Ferry where you can take your fun boat and swim. Nobody with a Moomba or Cobalt is going to ever put there boat on Lake Conway because you can’t even use the lake like that. I take my 18’ aluminum bass boat there to fish, but I go to Ouachita or Degray or Greer’s or Hamilton when we want to get the big boat out and meet up with friends to swim, drink, eat on the lake.
I am not saying this revitalization idea is hopeless, but you definitely have some fundamental forces that are nearly impossible to overcome. Basically think about the lake culture in central Arkansas as its own microcosm. There is too much competition and Lake Conway just can’t compete. Way nicer lakes with nicer properties already on them and it is all still very affordable.
