Ohio Lakefront Group Annual Meeting May 26, 2005

1. Ohio Lakefront GroupAnnual MeetingMay 26, 2005 www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

2. What is the Ohio Lakefront Group • Ordinary citizens; shoreline residents • Grassroots volunteer organization • Only one paid employee (lobbyist) • Non-profit corporation • Over 4,000 members www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

3. Purpose • Prevent erosion of shoreline property rights • Protect environment and the use of Lake Erie through reasonable regulation • Advocate reasonable common-sense goals for ODNR • We are NOT anti-environment ! www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

4. OHIO LAKEFRONT GROUP Legally Deeded Private Property State Property Regulatory Property Taking by ODNR ODNR forcing homeowners into leases for any structures in this area including erosion control or structures to access the water Historical Water Levels 1918 to 2003 (ft above sea level) Ordinary High Water Mark Dry Beach Area Natural Shoreline Low Water Mark Data Source for Graph http://co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/data_res.html Low Water Mark 569.2 ft Natural Shoreline shown for Dec 15, 2002 – 569.98 ft High Water Mark 573.4 ft www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com Year

5. Current Problems • Coastal Management Office of Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) • Taking deeded property without compensation • Declaring that the Public has the right to access our property • Violating littoral rights of lakefront owners • Making permitting process much more costly and burdensome www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

6. We Desire Meaningful Regulation • Provide meaningful regulation that • Protects Property Rights of shoreline owners • Protects the environment and health of Lake Erie • Prevents indiscriminant dumping into the lake www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

7. Public Trust in Ohio • Submerged land is owned in trust for the people of the state but subject to: • “the public rights of navigation, water commerce, and fishery” • “the property rights of littoral owners, including the right to make reasonable use of the waters in front of or flowing past their lands” www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

8. What are Littoral Rights (also called Riparian Rights) • Special property rights given to shoreline property owners • Right to build structures beyond your property boundary to access or wharf out to navigable water • Right to take title to natural additions of land (accretion and reliction) • Right to restore lands lost by avulsion www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

9. 8th District Court Case (Beach Cliff) • “It is ODNR’s position that, despite any reemergence of the beachfront property, the property has been artificially filled, thereby satisfying the definition of ‘territory’ sufficient for the issuance of a submerged land lease.” • How many of you have some sort of fill on your property? • Do you know if any fill has been dumped behind your property over the last one-hundred years? www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

10. First ODNR Took This Regulatory Property Taking by Coastal Management Office of ODNR Dry Beach Area ODNR says your land ends here (high water mark) Deed says your land ends here (low water mark) www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

11. Now They Want More Regulatory Property Taking by Coastal Management Office of ODNR Dry Beach Area ODNR calls this “historic fill” and says your land ends here Deed says your land ends here (low water mark) www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

12. Consequences of ODNR’s OHWM Use • Municipalities have no jurisdictional authority or police powers over State land. • Vast portions of most lakefront property have some fill on it and will have to be leased from the State. • Private Property along the entire Ohio Shoreline will be given over to Public access. www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

13. Ohio Greenways Source: The Greenway Collaborative, Inc. www.ohiogreenways.org www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

14. Comments of Great Lakes United • Restore shoreline and littoral processes by removing groins and seawalls where possible and softening hardened shorelines. • Establish development setbacks and vegetated buffers sufficient to protect water quality and habitat around all wetlands, lakes, rivers/streams, and Great Lakes shorelines. www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

15. Legislative Activities • HB 218 was introduced in 2003 by then State Representative Tim Grendell. • Bi-partisan support in the House where it passed 77-20. • In 2004 ODNR aggressively fought the Bill in the Senate and managed to stall the Bill. • The Governor is siding with ODNR. • HB 218 ultimately died with the last legislative session at the end of 2004. www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

16. Legislative Activities--Update • HB 206 has been introduced in the House by Representative Earl Martin of Avon Lake. • Senator Tim Grendell of Lake and Geauga County introduced companion SB 127. • We have had 3 hearings in the House on HB 206 that went well. The Senate is involved in the Budget and nothing else is moving there. www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

17. Legislative Activities—Testimony • The Director of ODNR testified last week that ODNR does “not have authority to pass judgment on deeds”. • However, less than two years ago an ODNR official declared that: “what is on a deed description captures a moment in time”. www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

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21. The Lawsuit • We have tried the Administrative route and the Legislative route, becausethey were not overly expensive. • So far, these have fallen short. • We are now involved invery expensive legal actionin Lake County Common Pleas Court and Federal Court. We will only be as good as the legal help that we can afford. www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

22. Lake County Common Pleas • OLG filed the lawsuit May 28, 2004. • ODNR’s approach to the lawsuit has been to drag it out and try to bankrupt us. They do not want to address the merits of the case. • We have won virtually every motion we made in this case. The case was going well. • We were scheduled for a hearing on Class Certification on March 3, 2005. www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

23. ODNR’s Cross-Claim: Federal Court • On February 28, 2005 the ODNR filed a cross-claim against the US Army Corps of Engineers. This pulled the lawsuit out of State Court and put it into Federal Court. • As a part of that cross-claim, ODNR stated: “Federal law and Ohio law hold that after statehood, the title and rights of riparian (upland that borders a river, stream, or other such water course) or littoral (upland that borders a ocean, lake or the bay of such body of water) proprietors in the soil below the ordinary high water mark are governed by the laws of the several states, subject to the rights granted to the United States by the constitution.” www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

24. Status of Lawsuits • Our lawsuit in Lake County is on hold and will continue to be on hold as long as the Federal action is in place. • The US Attorney has filed a motion in Federal Court to dismiss ODNR’s cross-claim. The earliest we can expect for a ruling on this motion to dismiss is early July—ODNR would have slowed us down by a minimum of 4 months. www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

25. Chances of Success • We have our Deeds on our side. • We have the complete history of our Deeds on our side. • We have the Ohio and the U.S. Constitution on our side. • Our lawyers have thus far won every argument in Common Pleas. • ODNR has time and apathy on its side. www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

26. Apathy/Excuses • I do not want to donate money because: • The Group is doing fine without me; • My neighbor should donate because he/she is rich; • My neighbor should donate because I should not have to pay for him; • Big companies should pay for this because they have more to lose; • ODNR has not approached me to sign a lease; • I do not like to give money to attorneys; • I cannot afford it. www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com

27. ASK YOURSELF • What is my property worth? • What is my property worth with Public Access? • What happens to the Lawsuit if we run out of money? • What would it cost me to pursue my own lawsuit? www.ohiolakefrontgroup.com