Summary of Testimony for Feb 11, 2004

The Gongwer News Agency summarized several people's testimony.

Please read the remarks from Senator Robert Gardner highlighted in red. Unlike the reporter suggests, this statement did not produce a positive ripple throughout the proponents attending the hearing.

David Carek, the first of nine witnesses representing the Ohio Lakefront Group (OLG), in testimony in favor of the bill said the OLG desired meaningful legislation that would recognize the property rights and alleviate the burdens of lakefront landowners. Mr. Carek continued by saying the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' (ODNR) use of the high water mark as the dividing line between public and private property is unfair to low-level landowners and "leaves large strips of land under a cloud of misunderstanding on actual ownership." He stated the ODNR's "high water" policy lacks credible foundation and cited Ohio Supreme Court rulings and case law to illustrate his point.

Questioned by Senator Eric Fingerhut (D-Cleveland), Mr. Carek described what he believed to be ODNR's definition of "southerly shore" regarding public/private property boundary lines and ODNR's perceivably aggressive lakefront state property lease program.

Adrian Betleski, also representing OLG, said ODNR have taken away the rights of lakefront property owners and rendered existing property deeds null and void. Mr. Betleski said the high water boundary set by the department goes against the language of existing lakefront property deeds, many of which set the property line at the low water mark. Citing the Public Trust doctrine, he concluded state property applies to the water and land under water only adding that the doctrine recognizes the validity of existing property deeds.

James O'Connor, a member of the OLG but testifying on his own behalf, recounted his experience with ODNR regarding his inquiry on the construction of a jetty on his property. Mr. O'Connor said he was forced to sign over his property rights to state coastal managers and to agree to a lease paying ODNR for the use of the property. Mr. O'Connor stated ODNR coastal managers used "deceit, lies and intimidation" to steal his property, based on the high watermark property line, and charge him for the use of it. He declared the bill would restore, not eliminate, reasonable coastal management regulation and end the "extreme hardships, regulations, and illegal confiscation" of his property and others by ODNR.

Thomas Jordan of Sheffield Lake, said he believed the manner in which the ODNR administers the Coastal Management Program, specifically the submerged lands lease program and permitting process, is "completely out of control." Referring to a jetty built in 1911 and other personally-maintained erosion control structures on his property, Mr. Jordan said the department's Office of Coastal Management contacted him by letter notifying him that he was occupying the submerged lands of Lake Erie and he would have to obtain a submerged lands lease. Noting the letter did not indicate how the calculation was performed or justified, Mr. Jordan reported the letter further indicated that aerial photographs were used to calculate that approximately 10,000 square feet of the property was within the waters of Lake Erie. "Most importantly, the ODNR ignored my deed that states my property extends to the low water mark of Lake Erie," he said.

Mr. Jordan, who serves on ODNR's Coastal Resources Advisory Council and on a Blue Ribbon Task Force on Balanced Growth for the Lake Erie Water Shed, said he was intimidated into signing an application for a lease for Lake Erie submerged lands when threatened by the department that erosion protection structures would be removed at his expense if he did not comply with the signing of the lease. Declaring he is not opposed to reasonable regulation of shoreline activity, Mr. Jordan asked the committee to "put the ODNR's Office of Coastal Management back in its place" with the approval of the legislation that he said would require the department to honor deeds, eliminate residential submerged lands leases for structures that do not extend lakeward past the low water mark and eliminate the residential permit process which he said he believed to be redundant with the Army Corps of Engineers' process.

Russell Claus, a lakefront property owner from Vermillion, urged the committee to review Attorney General Opinion No. 93-025 and other legal documents that, he said, clearly identifies property owners from the "natural shoreline" to the high water mark. He said he became a lakefront property owner only through hard work and a lifetime of savings adding he later paid $55,000 to construct an erosion structure. "No one else provided any funding or paid any of my property taxes. Yet, now there are people who would like to 'take' this property. They didn't work for this property, but they certainly want it for free," he told the committee. Mr. Claus said the legislation is needed to "redirect" ODNR's efforts. He suggested the department would better serve the people by focusing on real issues such as illegal dumping or point-source contamination.

Suggestions made by Senator Robert Gardner (R-Madison) seemed to resonate among the bill's proponents. He said the suggestions are "things we can all live with" to give people short-distance access to beaches without negatively impacting the rights of property owners. Among his suggestions were "grandfathering" in existing property owners, providing immunity from liability for existing devices, prohibiting motor vehicles on beaches and prohibiting people from "trespassing" over a rise or bluff to get from one beach to another. The senator likened the situation with early property owner opposition to Sunday hunting when property owners testified that Sunday hunting would create more trespassing issues for them. He concluded that those people, in fact, didn't have a problem with Sunday hunting but had a problem with trespassers. He said the General Assembly addressed that issue by enhancing trespassing laws and noted a similar approach could be pursued with beach property.

Page updated 2/13/04; Randy Pindor