October 9th , 2009
Attorney General Appealing Lake Property Case
Written by Larry Limpf ThePress
Friday, 09 October 2009 11:58The issue of landowner rights along the Lake Erie shoreline is now before the Ohio Supreme Court.
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray is appealing a decision by the 11th District Court of Appeals which ruled the land beneath the waters of the Lake Erie shoreline is open to the public and lakefront property residents own the land above the waterline.
The decision also set limits for the attorney general’s participation in the case, ruling that office’s authority to enter such a case is determined by the governor or state legislature.
“This ruling by the appeals court undermines the attorney general’s authority and duty to represent the people of Ohio,” Cordray said. “It also affects the rights of all Ohioans, including private landowners, along the shores of Lake Erie.”
The appeals court ruling in August for the most part upholds a ruling in December, 2007 by the Lake County Common Pleas Court. “By setting the boundary at the water’s edge, we recognize and respect the private property rights of littoral owners, while at the same time, provide for the public’s use of the waters of Lake Erie and the land submerged under those waters, when submerged. The water’s edge provides a readily discernible boundary for both the public and littoral landowners,” the appeals court wrote.
Members of the Ohio Lakefront Group sued the state in 2004 after the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, under then Gov. Bob Taft, charged lakefront property owners a lease to place docks out into the lake waters. Under that policy, the state contended the boundary between public and private land was the shoreline’s “ordinary high water mark” – a surveying point established by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Gov. Taft and the ODNR argued their position was based on the public trust doctrine.
