Shorewood resident Paul Florsheim says he plans to appeal a municipal judge’s determination that he was guilty of trespassing when he walked on a beach in Shorewood late last summer.
In her ruling Wednesday, Shorewood Municipal Judge Margo Kirchner said, “I grant judgment for the Village of Shorewood and find Florsheim guilty on the citation for trespassing. I impose the forfeiture in the deposit amount printed on his citation: $313.”
Florsheim was ticketed when he walked on a stretch of beachfront property just north of the public Atwater Beach last August. The owner of the Lake Drive property that abuts Lake Michigan complained to police, who issued the ticket.
The heart of the case hinges on the fact that the Village maintains residents who own homes along the lakeshore own everything down to the water’s edge. Paul Florsheim argues everyone has a right to enjoy the beach, from the shoreline to the ordinary high water mark.
Midwest Environmental Advocates agrees with Florsheim. Staff attorney Rob Lee says that right is guaranteed in the Wisconsin Constitution.
“There was a quotation in the findings of fact from the landowner talking about this being his backyard where Mr. Florsheim was. That is not their backyard. Any land below the ordinary high water mark is owned and held in trust by the state of Wisconsin,” Lee says.
Lee says his team is following this case, “Because it has the chance to go up to a court of appeals or Wisconsin Supreme Court and make a law, or at least clarify what the law already is.”
That’s what happened in two Lake Michigan neighbors. The state supreme courts of Indiana and Michigan ruled the public has the right to enjoy the Great Lake’s shoreline.
“Sometimes it takes a perfect case like this, on these findings of fact, or someone willing to stand up and say no,” Lee says.
He says if Florsheim is ultimately successful in his mission to ensure everyone's right to enjoy Wisconsin's Lake Michigan shoreline, "All of those no trespass signs, ordinances and all those things are unconstitutional and have been chilling the public's rights to access these places forever," Lee says.
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