Ownership and Access
Despite a decades-old status quo in which the Lake Oswego Corporation maintains that it owns the lake and has the authority to restrict access to it, state and local law enforcement have recently indicated that they consider the lake to be public and that they will not pursue charges against anyone for using it. As of 2012, local law enforcement was on the record saying the water is public property and that it was more likely to charge the corporation's security patrols with unlawful arrest than to cite swimmers or boaters for enjoying the water.
Nonetheless, the corporation has successfully cultivated an air of authority to control the waters, posting "no trespassing" signs and issuing permits to select individuals who overcome various administrative hurdles. The corporation also seeks to regulate boat and operator licensing, water safety, and water quality, but those regulations may not be actually binding. With most land around the lake privately owned, and following a unanimous vote by the Lake Oswego City Council to bar entry to the lake from several lakefront parks, few people have been able to test the authority of the corporation to enforce those regulations.
The ability of the corporation to restrict access to the water has been questioned on numerous occasions. According to recent independent assessments of the legal situation, including a 2005 Oregon Attorney General opinion regarding the public's right to use navigable waterways in Oregon, the waters are publicly owned, though the ground beneath the lake is owned by the shareholders of the corporation, including 690 lakefront property owners and another 515 families who belong to one of 20 waterfront easement associations.
The corporation argues that the federal Water Resources Development Act of 1976 specifically classified the lake as non-navigable; therefore, the Attorney General opinion—which states that waterways over private land are only public if they are "navigable-for-public-use"—does not apply. The corporation also asserts that the lake is an artificially-expanded power reservoir and not a natural body of water.
In May 2012, a federal lawsuit was filed against the city of Lake Oswego to prevent it from limiting public access to the lake. The case was dismissed from federal court in October, with the judge indicating that the state of Oregon, due to its presumed ownership interest, should be able to weigh in on the case. The plaintiffs refiled in state court in November.
Read more about this topic: Oswego Lake
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