OLG Lawsuit Status after Appellate Court Decision Presentation

OLG Meetings Across Lake Erie

OLG President Tony Yankel

Meetings were held in Westlake, Port Clinton, and Geneva-on-the-Lake September 8th through 10th. OLG Chairman Greg Baeppler presided and made introductions at the meetings.

Tom Lundrum of Huron spoke first at the Westlake meeting. He was the first State Representative to sponsor OLG legislation in the House of Representatives. While the bill passed with a large margin in the full House vote, the Senate never got it out of committee, which doomed the bill to die at the end of the General Assembly’ term. Representative Lundrum lost in his rebid for election as a result of

Tony Yankel presented a history of the lawsuit from before filing, through the Court of Common Pleas, Federal Court, and the Appellate Court.  In summary, OLG won all of its points between Judge Lucci’s Court of Common Pleas and the 11th District Court of Appeals. The Federal Court remanded the case back to the State Court with strong language to the State A.G. that this case should have never been brought into Federal Court.

OLG also feels that since our case was not “Stayed” by the Courts that lakeshore owners are not subject to paying leasing fees on their own land. We are still subject to paying leases on land on which we have structures beyond the limits of our deeds. We are also subject to regulation by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protective Agency, and ODNR. However, Tony noted that it is still taking up to a year and a half to get a structure permit, whereby a home permit takes weeks. The ODNR continues to drag out the permit process at the expense of the property owner. Further the new Administrative Rules that were promised almost 2 years ago have still not been adopted.

OLG feels it is certain that the National Wildlife Federation and the Ohio Economic Council will appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. To date, the Attorney General’s office has not made a decision about appealing their lack of standing in the case.

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