A Shorewood resident has won his battle over a trespassing ticket that he was issued for walking on the beach.
The Village of Shorewood says people with homes above the Lake Michigan shore own everything down to the water’s edge.
Paul Florsheim believes everyone has the right to walk along the shoreline.
A Milwaukee County judge threw out his ticket last week.
But the state still doesn’t have a clear policy on the public’s right to enjoy the shoreline, because a circuit court ruling does not create a precedent.
Florsheim’s attorney, Rob Lee with Midwest Environmental Advocates, says a circuit court decision is not binding and therefore doesn’t establish precedent.
“Certainly it’s binding with respect to the ticket that Paul received and that was dismissed," Lee says. "But nothing, theoretically, would prevent another municipality from reading this 1923 case, it's called Doemel v. Jantz, the same way that the village did — issuing someone a trespass citation and then a circuit court judge in a different county, or maybe even Milwaukee County, reaching a different decision."
The Village of Shorewood argued the 1923 state Supreme Court case that ruled in favor of a Lake Winnebago shoreline property owner applied to the Shorewood dispute.
Circuit court Judge J.D. Watts disagreed, “finding that the 1923 Supreme Court case that the municipal court relied upon to convict Paul of trespassing did not apply, and that the public trust doctrine in fact allows Paul and people like Paul to walk the beach below that ordinary high water mark on our Great Lakes,” Lee says.
The foundation of Florsheim’s argument is the public trust doctrine.
“When the Wisconsin Constitution of 1848 was adopted, this public trust doctrine was enshrined in it,” Lee says. “What it says is that Wisconsin's navigable waters shall remain forever free for not just the people of Wisconsin, but really anybody coming to Wisconsin.”
Lee says that includes the Lake Michigan shoreline below the ordinary high water mark.
"And what I mean by the ordinary high water mark is just that sort of visible area on the beach, like the highest point the water normally gets, that you can kind of see where the vegetation is,” Lee says. “Under our public trust doctrine, the state owns the bed of our Great Lakes and holds that in trust so that people can use it.”
Paul Florsheim says while he finds the ruling gratifying, he wishes it provided more clarity on the path forward.
“I really would like to see a time that we have the signs [saying] 'You're free to walk the shoreline as long as you respect the private property rights of our neighbors.' The lack of clarity still troubles me. And so I would really like to continue to push forward to have some clarity about what our rights are, who owns the beach, and what do villages, like the Village of Shorewood, need to do to affirm those rights and protect those rights,” Florsheim says.
Rob Lee thinks better informing the public about the power of the public trust doctrine is a first step.
“And people can be proactive in their own villages. You don’t have to wait to get a ticket. Maybe a call to your local government and see how they deal with these issues would be helpful,” Lee says.
Paul Florsheim thinks people in Wisconsin care deeply about the issue.
“In the year that this has been going on, I've received quite a few emails from people around the state pretty concerned about their rights to take walks on the beach. So I do you think that there are people out there who might just do that,” Florsheim says.
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