On the first day of the 2022 boating season at Lakepoint Marina, the water on Loch Lomond sat at 52 degrees and the marina's Trails Manager, Trey Anson, was still putting a dock back together. It had come apart during that winter's drawdown, the annual event where the Bella Vista Property Owners Association drains one of its seven lakes down several feet so residents can get at what the water normally hides. That same spring, while Loch Lomond refilled, Lake Ann was on its way down. Two lakes, opposite directions, same season.
If you have lived in Bella Vista for a while, you have probably noticed this without naming it. A lake you paddle every summer looks strange and low come November, its boat ramp extending into mud that used to be underwater. Then a year or two later it is full again and a different lake looks strange instead. This is not neglect and it is not drought. It is a rotation the POA runs on purpose, and if you own property on the water, when your lake gets its turn matters more than almost anything else about how you use your dock.
Why the Water Actually Drops
The Bella Vista Property Owners Association manages seven lakes: Ann, Avalon, Brittany, Norwood, Rayburn, Windsor, and Loch Lomond. Roughly once every few years, one of them gets scheduled for a controlled drawdown, lowered by about 3 inches a day until it sits several feet below full pool. The point is not to shrink the lake. It is to expose the shoreline long enough for homeowners to do work that is impossible underwater: repairing or rebuilding docks and seawalls, dredging accumulated silt and debris from the water in front of their property, clearing brush that has crept toward the bank.
The POA uses the same window for its own maintenance. During a drawdown, crews resurface the courtesy dock at the boat ramp and cut deeper traction grooves into the ramp itself, the kind of concrete work that would otherwise require closing the ramp mid-season. Fish habitat improvement projects, the brush piles and structure that give bass and crappie somewhere to hold, also get placed while the lakebed is exposed. None of this happens quickly. The lake comes down slowly, as recommended by the Arkansas Natural Resource Commission, and refilling depends on rain and the springs that feed these lakes rather than any fixed date the POA can promise.
It Rotates, and It Is Never the Same Lake Twice
This is the part that surprises people who have only lived here a few years. The drawdown is not a Bella Vista-wide event. It moves.
Lake Windsor took its turn in the fall of 2023, with the drawdown beginning October 16 and continuing through mid-February, long enough for homeowners to dredge, rebuild docks, and repair seawalls before spring. Coverage in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette at the time noted the same purpose: giving lakefront residents a window they would not otherwise get. Before that, in the spring of 2022, it was Lake Ann coming down while Loch Lomond filled back in, a pairing the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette covered as POA crews wrapped one project and started prepping for the next.
The pattern holds because the POA cannot lower all seven lakes at once without shutting down boating, fishing, and marina access across the entire community for months. Spreading the work out means that in any given winter, most of Bella Vista's lakes stay at full pool while one absorbs the disruption. If you do not own on the lake that is down, your season barely changes. If you do, it is the only chance you will get for a while.
This Winter, It's Lake Ann's Turn
The Bella Vista Property Owners Association has scheduled Lake Ann's next drawdown to begin November 2, 2026, continuing through March 1, 2027. The lake will come down at the standard rate, about 3 inches per day, until it reaches 6 feet below full pool.
Lake Ann is worth knowing a little about before its water level drops. Completed in 1970, it is a 112-acre lake distinguished from the other six by limestone bluffs and rocky outcrops along parts of its shoreline, features typical of Ozark topography that most of the other Bella Vista lakes do not share. It is also spring-fed, with a spring that surfaces in the lakebed near the pavilion and keeps that section running clear and cold even in summer. None of that changes once the drawdown starts, but the bluffs and the exposed shoreline will look different at 6 feet down than they do at full pool, and anyone who fishes or walks the shoreline regularly should expect the boat ramp and shallow coves to look considerably different by December.
Meanwhile, Loch Lomond, which went through its own drawdown last winter (beginning November 3, 2025 and refilling starting March 2, 2026), should be back at normal levels this fall. That timing matters if you are choosing where to boat, fish, or launch a kayak this coming season while Ann is down.
If You Own on Lake Ann, Here's What to Actually Do
A drawdown is a limited window, and the paperwork does not wait for the water to drop. If you own lakefront property on Ann and have been putting off dock or seawall work, this is the season to move.
- Confirm the exact timeline before you plan around it. Refill dates depend on rainfall and cannot be guaranteed, so treat November 2 as a start date, not a fixed project calendar.
- Get the right permit for the right work. Building, modifying, or repairing a dock or seawall requires a permit through the City of Bella Vista, not the POA.
- Separate dredging from construction. If you plan to dredge or remove material below the waterline, that requires a Short-Term Activity Authorization from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, a different process from a dock permit.
- Loop in the Architectural Control Committee for anything structural or visible from the shoreline, since aesthetic changes on private property near the lake typically fall under ACC review separate from the city permit.
- Call the Lakes and Parks Superintendent with questions specific to timing or lake conditions. Rick Echols holds that role for the POA and is the person who tracks drawdown progress day to day.
Skipping the permit step is the single most common way lakefront projects stall out mid-drawdown, not because the work itself is complicated but because the approvals run through three different offices instead of one.
If You Don't Own on Ann, Plan Around It Anyway
Most Bella Vista residents are not lakefront owners on the one lake that happens to be cycling through maintenance in a given year, but the rotation still shapes how the season feels. This winter, Loch Lomond stays at full pool with its marina, boat rentals, and covered fishing dock running normally, and Windsor should be unaffected as well. If your usual weekend routine includes fishing or paddling on Ann, expect lower water, a longer walk to the shoreline at some access points, and a boat ramp under active repair rather than open for casual launches. Shifting to Loch Lomond or Windsor for the next several months solves that without much extra thought.
What the Rotation Actually Tells You
Bella Vista markets itself around having seven lakes, and that is true, but it undersells what actually keeps them usable. A lake does not stay fishable, clear, and structurally sound by sitting untouched. It stays that way because the POA takes one out of rotation at a time, gives homeowners a real window to fix what the water normally hides, and does its own ramp and habitat work in the same stretch. The tradeoff is that no single winter looks the same twice, and the lake that is down this year will not be the lake that is down in two or three years.
If you are timing a dock rebuild, deciding where to keep a boat this winter, or just trying to understand why Ann looks different than it did last summer, that is the mechanism behind it. I'm Cindy Carfaro with Hutchinson Realty, and I spend enough time working with Bella Vista buyers and sellers that I end up tracking this schedule anyway. If you have questions about how a drawdown affects a specific property, lakefront or not, reach out through Cindy Carfaro and I'll walk through what I know.
