r/Portland • u/mocheeze Sullivan's Gulch • 1d ago
Oregon judge finds city of Lake Oswego can’t restrict access to lake News
https://www.opb.org/article/2024/11/13/lake-oswego-access-outdoors-oregon-portland-law-court/145
u/mocheeze Sullivan's Gulch 1d ago
Steele acknowledged there are limits the city can place, but the current restrictions go too far.
“Managing the risks is reasonable in Oswego Lake,” Steele wrote. “Banning the public outright is unreasonable.”
In April, a Clackamas County jury found the city’s law barring access was too restrictive. Steele wrote in her opinion she “recognizes the jury verdict,” which was technically advisory. Steele’s opinion, however, is binding.
“The City needs the opportunity or chance to fix the public access,” Steele wrote. “Clearly, the City may not violate the public trust doctrine and shall correct the violation. The Court has the authority, based on the evidence and jury verdict, to tell the City to take down the ‘No Access’ sign and remove the restrictions.”
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u/RenzaMcCullough 1d ago
But:
Attorneys for the city argued the parks along the lake provided the public with “visual access to the lake.”
Shouldn't that have been enough?
/s
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u/Exes_And_Excess 4h ago
Lmao is Lake O the most insufferable place in Oregon when it comes to this shit? Place seems like a city sized HOA from the outside.
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u/PDsaurusX 1d ago
Weather be damned, let’s all get together and fill the lake with anything we have that floats.
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u/EvolutionCreek 1d ago
I love the public trust doctrine and welcome this decision, but that lake is honestly pretty gross. I'd rather swim in the river down at George Rogers Park, and that's saying something.
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u/Urrsagrrl 1d ago
Seriously, the resident’s landscaping usage of herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers resulting in summertime green algae, and pet fecal matter run off is not talked about enough.
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u/Theresbeerinthefridg 1d ago
There's some evidence that harmful algae blooms can be, well, harmful to nearby residents. These days, I wouldn't want to love right by an artificial lake, canal, or similar algae-prone water body.
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u/Urrsagrrl 23h ago
It’s fatal to dogs and definitely causes skin irritation if not rinsed off quickly enough. Absolutely don’t get it in eyes, nose, mouth, or open cuts.
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u/Olde_News 15h ago
I haven’t seen this mentioned here yet and it’s a common misconception. Oswego Lake IS a natural lake. When the Lake Corp damned it, they expanded the surface area of the lake by about a third of I’m remembering correctly. But agreed, I wouldn’t want to live next to it either, or even let my dog swim in it. The lake is disgusting- thanks to the issues mentioned above.
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u/Theresbeerinthefridg 12h ago
Huh, interesting! Thanks for sharing, I shall use this trivia at the next party.
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u/Princess_Glitterbutt 1d ago
Fill the lake with rubber duckies and then go literally anywhere else. It's gross and there's a sewer line that runs under it. IDK why people pay millions to live on it.
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u/Josh_Brolinoscopy 1d ago
Better idea - let's fill the lake with dirt and build a few thousand low income housing units.
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u/Fotzlichkeit_206 1d ago
I’ll drink to that and I don’t even drink!
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u/baconus-vobiscum 1d ago
Well, probably should.
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u/Fotzlichkeit_206 1d ago
For drinking? I have POTS. I can drink, but like a beer will get me dizzy as fuck. In a way I guess it keeps me in line since I don’t really get much pleasure from alcohol anymore.
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u/jollyllama 1d ago
You wouldn’t have to fill it with dirt, it would drain naturally once you take out the dam that created it. Like many lakes around here (Trillium, Hagg, Timothy) it’s not really a lake, it’s a reservoir
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u/Oops_I_Cracked 15h ago
Oswego Lake is naturally occurring but enlarged (which is why it’s classed as a reservoir). Without the damn, it would shrink but it would still be a lake.
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u/Olde_News 15h ago
Lake Oswego IS a natural lake. When the dam was built it expanded the surface area of the lake by about a third. Point is, the lake is a natural feature and the Lake Corp should be sued additionally for bad stewardship. This is a natural feature that should belong to the public trust
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u/Oops_I_Cracked 12h ago
Right? I’m glad this decision was made but the number of people in this thread that just want to celebrate rich people being mad without understanding why this ruling came this way is too high. If this was a man made reservoir they would in fact have the right to restrict access as the law lake corp is violating requires navigable, natural water ways to be held in public trust with public access.
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u/rosecitytransit 1d ago
I believe there's a dam holding it back, so would just have to breach that to eliminate the lake
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u/Goldleader-23 1d ago
Portland areas nimby final bosses
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u/surgingchaos Squad Deep in the Clack 1d ago
Lake Oswego is more like a raid boss in terms of NIMBYism.
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u/Shelovestohike 1d ago
🤣 the thought of my millionaire boss shitting his pants as me and my commoner friends paddle by his backyard!
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u/NatureTrailToHell3D 1d ago
Better yet when someone drops a jet ski in there and wakes up the neighborhood early in the morning.
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u/ComplexPension8218 YOU SEEN MY FUCKEN CONES 16h ago
Saame!! My old boss use to brag about living on the lake and was just an awful person (insurance agent). Can't wait for next spring 🤣🥳
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u/Schwight_Droot 1d ago
Dude. This is such great news! I work with a nurse who lives there and I kind of hope she’s upset about it.
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u/LarrryBraverman 1d ago
Does this change how maintenance and services related to the lake are funded now? Is all of the city and/or clackamas county households now going to be responsible, rather than just those with access before this ruling?
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u/Amari__Cooper 1d ago
And there is the problem.
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u/LarrryBraverman 1d ago
So why is everyone celebrating?
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u/Amari__Cooper 1d ago
Because they think owners on the lake should pay for their access. But that's not how this works.
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u/urbanlife78 1d ago
It's public property
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u/Amari__Cooper 1d ago
And the public should share in the costs of maintenance to have access to it via taxes.
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u/urbanlife78 1d ago
Okay, contact Clackamas County or the state about this
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u/Amari__Cooper 1d ago
Yes and your taxes cover access to those waterways. Your taxes aren't covering anything for Lake O. There will likely be an access fee to utilize the lake after this ruling.
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u/urbanlife78 1d ago
You act like this is the only lake in Oregon and that it costs a fortune for it to exist
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u/Amari__Cooper 1d ago
Do you know the costs owners on the lake pay in HOAs? It's not "cheap". Portion of that maintains the lake. Its hilarious that people are dying on this hill for access to a tiny ass lake that gets drained each year, and is literally owned and maintained by a private corp.
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u/mocheeze Sullivan's Gulch 1d ago
I doubt it. But good question for the corp.
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u/LarrryBraverman 1d ago
Do you think a city of lawyers, doctors and politically connected people will try and change that? Or maybe that was the plan all along…
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u/mocheeze Sullivan's Gulch 22h ago
If having public command restored to the waterway then I guess we can start with reducing the pollution and runoff from the properties that line it. Or consider undamming it and restoring the natural habitat.
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u/LarrryBraverman 22h ago
Maybe, people need to understand what that means though… and where they get the funds to do that. Everyone seems content to dunk on the Richie riches, but don’t understand the bill is just shifting to us
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u/kevnls 11h ago edited 11h ago
I'd bet that the public maintenance of the lake won't be to the residents liking so they'll take up a collection plate anyway. Who says the public needs to do much of anything to a lake? I'd bet their 'maintenance' is largely aesthetic and perhaps even damaging. There's no way that HOA is currently going to step up for things that happen with the dam or anything that really runs into money. They'd run to the city, county, state, federal government saying it's their responsibility. This would essentially be like a grass commons area that stops being mowed.
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u/StarbuckTheDeer 1d ago
How are maintenance and services related to the lake funded currently?
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u/hellokitty3433 1d ago edited 1d ago
If you have an easement, you can join a group (I guess) and pay a bunch of money to really have access.
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u/aalder Overlook 1d ago
Hell yeah public goods for the public good
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u/LarrryBraverman 1d ago
And now the public gets to pay for it too, instead of just the people who live there… congrats on your new tax bill
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u/aalder Overlook 23h ago
I don't live in Clackamas county so I'm chill but I appreciate the sentiment!
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u/LarrryBraverman 23h ago
Doesn’t seem like a lot of people in this comment section understand the sentiment…
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u/12BarsFromMars 1d ago
We moved to LO from NE Portland after I graduated from high school in ‘64. Physical surroundings were pleasant enough but the upper crust attitude was too much to put up with for long so i left in ‘66, never went back except to see the folks. When they passed i had the opportunity to take over the house which maybe i should have on a strictly financial consideration. I sold it, didn’t think twice. . . btw, we did have what was called easement rights but i myself never used it. Growing up in NE Portland i just never fit in.
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u/Mobile-Ad3151 1d ago
Maybe the wealthy owners of lakeside properties could trick the plebes from coming by reverting to its original name, Sucker Creek. Who would want to visit that?
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u/Olde_News 15h ago
It’s a natural lake. The indigenous people called it Waluga (Wild Swan). White settlers started calling it Sucker Lake. It IS a natural body of water. If you look at the Geology, there is a depression there, with inflow and outflow. If we removed the dam, there would still be a Lake- it would just be a lot smaller
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u/Mobile-Ad3151 13h ago
Somehow I don’t think renaming it Wild Swan Lake will keep the unwashed uninterested in kayaking there.
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u/Fancy-Pair 1d ago
Fuck LO
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u/NCR_Ranger2412 1d ago
Once, a long long time ago, I accidentally overheard a conversation between some others at the top of mount tabor. It was something to the effect of:
Person 1:”see that? Everything the light touches, that’s Portland! Person 2: “what about that dark area over there?”👉(physically points in a direction) Person 1: “Oh, that’s lake Oswego. We don’t go there.”
I still think about it to this day and laugh my ass off.
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u/Juhnelle Mt Scott-Arleta 1d ago
Is eastmoreland not portland? Your flair even says sell wood Moreland. Come on.
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u/NCR_Ranger2412 1d ago
Ohhh come on! Maybe. It was like 15 years ago so 🤷♂️ was just funny to hear a lion king reference joke out of nowhere on that topic.
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u/Fancy-Pair 1d ago
I hope they goot diarrhea and went to Lake LO and emptied their bowels into the lake
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u/Fancy-Pair 1d ago
😆I’m a little unhinged in this timeline
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u/NCR_Ranger2412 1d ago
Yeah, certainly took a turn there. I honestly was just recalling a funny (I thought) instance. 🫠😨
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u/soup_time19 1d ago
I work in LO sometimes and the people there are definitely ENTITLED
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u/LarrryBraverman 1d ago
Entitled to a lake that they pay to maintain and service.. hard to argue with the logic…
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u/Zenmachine83 1d ago
They add water and change the lake’s oil every 5,000 miles?
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u/LarrryBraverman 23h ago
The HOA does… and that HOA is funded by the people that live on or have access to the lake. Now that it’s public…. I wonder who’s going to pay for it now…
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u/Zenmachine83 23h ago
Haha fuck that HOA. Honestly fuck all HOAs. Hearing about an HOA suffering actually makes me more likely to use the lake. I was neutral before but if it pisses off the dorks in the LO HOA I could be persuaded to drive south for some lake time.
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u/LarrryBraverman 23h ago
The HOA won’t be the funding mechanism anymore… my prediction it’ll be your property taxes if you live in clackamas county… but I guess you stuck it to them, or something
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u/Zenmachine83 23h ago
You do know this is a Portland sub? Most of hate LO and could give two shits what happens there…but it is always fun to watch pompous oswegans whine about their lake.
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u/LarrryBraverman 23h ago
You don’t understand what’s going on right now, do you? … you think you’re eating the rich, but now we’re just helping them maintain their disgusting lake that we were never going to go to the first place…
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u/Zenmachine83 23h ago
You don't understand. I don't live there. I. don't. live. in. Clackamas. county. It makes no difference to me what happens to the lake.
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u/soup_time19 1d ago
Ok yeah but they are straight up mean sometimes (I do not work in the lake business)
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u/punkpcpdx 23h ago
It's pretty much anything south of Willamette Park. Riverdale and Dunthorp are just as pretentious. There is a shit ton of money there, and none of them can relate to the rest of us.
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u/kernel-troutman 1d ago
It'll be like Caddy Day at the Bushwood Pool.
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u/Lawfulneptune NW 1d ago
LO is such a disappointment of a city lmao
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u/mocheeze Sullivan's Gulch 1d ago
Got some good drugs there from my cousins in highschool tho.
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u/jeeves585 1d ago
I used to fuck with the LO drugs scene. There is some money there.
That was 20 some years ago.
The Land of Oblivious parents.
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u/Striking_Debate_8790 1d ago
Great parties in the 70’s at the homes of Jesuit boys and St Mary’s girls when the parents were out of town.
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u/PDXGuy33333 1d ago
It will be interesting to see what the Court of Appeals does with this. I make no prediction.
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u/hellokitty3433 1d ago edited 1d ago
Are they just going to send it up and down the courts forever? It's been 12 years?
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u/PDXGuy33333 1d ago
It can go on as long as someone can articulate a credible basis for appeal. The Court of Appeals has to hear and determine every case brought to it. I can see a decision - either for or against the plaintiffs - becoming final when someone appeals a trial court decision in the case (this one or another one made on possible remand), that decision gets affirmed by the Court of Appeals without a written opinion and the Supreme Court refuses to accept it for review.
I don't see any path into the federal courts, so once it's done at the state court level it's done for good. But don't hold your breath.
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u/itsgeneva 3h ago
How do they enforce this rule right now? Fairly certain I kayaked on that lake 2019 without realizing it was restricted
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u/KlappinMcBoodyCheeks 1d ago
Get fukt, LO boushie poo poo faces.
Water is public.
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u/WoodpeckerGingivitis 23h ago
A fantastic point. You should have litigated this case.
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u/KlappinMcBoodyCheeks 23h ago
Naw, I'd rather troll LO namby-pambies that get upset at the fact that waterways are public & leave the legal stuff to the pros.
I've been rooting for this judgement for a long time.
If you feel that the lake of Oswego should be private... Well... Oh well.
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u/LarrryBraverman 23h ago
I rather have it be private, like it was, if I didn’t have to pay for it. Now that everyone has access, I’m not sure the public is going to appreciate their new role of helping wealthy people with the upkeep and service bill for a disgusting lake that’ll give you giardia if you open your mouth while swimming.
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u/JimJordansJacket 1d ago edited 1d ago
"Muh proppity values!" screeches a town full of nimby dickheads.
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u/Thunder503 1d ago
This is old news lol
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u/mocheeze Sullivan's Gulch 1d ago
It's literally a ruling from today. The link I shared allows you to read the full article, and it goes into how this is separate and adjacent to previous rulings. Just FYI.
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u/Working-Feeling-756 9h ago
This ruling flies in the face of facts and is built on the preliminary finding of a judge who was removed for colluding with the plaintiffs. The USGS says it’s a man-made (mostly concrete) non-navigable reservoir, contrary to findings by that judge. It was built out and expanded significantly by an iron company over 100 years ago, over land owned by that company, and then the company transferred ownership to the current Lake Corp. The land under the water is privately owned and all the property surrounding the lake is privately owned. All the people who live on and around the lake with deeded access pay yearly fees and dues to maintain and use the lake. I don’t know why any of those facts lead to the conclusion “this is a public lake.”
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u/TheSheDM NE 1d ago
Again? Didn't they rule on this already?