January, 2003

As you may be aware of, road endings at water have become an issue recently. Road endings such as Nestrom, Indian Bay and McMillan have been in the news. These issues have resulted in the Muskegon County Road Commission agreeing to study roads ending at water in Muskegon County. In this regard, the Commission has approved a pilot study headed by the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission.

The Road Commission is contributing $3,000 and Muskegon County $1,500 to the study. Fruitland Township, White River Township and the White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce each has agreed to pay $500 toward the $6,000 study.

An organizational meeting was held this past December 10^th. The study committee’s goal is to provide an overall framework for handling all road ends and not specific plans for any individual road ends. The WLA has been invited to participate on this study committee.

Most road end rules have been created by “case law,” not legislative law.

A bill has been introduced in the state legislature to put 120 years of case law into state law. Doing this would help protect riparian interests and also establish case law into standards for road end use by the public.

Current case law among other things has ruled:

1.           To define public access as ingress and egress only, and shall not include boat hoist, docks (unless public dock to aid access) picnicking, sunbathing or lounging unless stated differently in a property dedication (Backus vs. Detroit and Jacobs vs. Lyons Township).

2.            Would allow for fines for violations, and prevent private parties from barricading to prevent legitimate public use. Also, fines for improper public use and require posting of permitted uses.

As reported in the last “Michigan Riparian” magazine, the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association is interested in this possible legislation.

Last summer, the Nestrom Road end became a controversy when in July the Road Commission removed a concrete ramp and placed posts across the road 158 feet from the lake with one 12 foot opening, and hauled in fill sand.

A history of the Nestrom Road end shows that in 1982-83 a lawsuit was settled between the then property owner on the east and the Road Commission over ownership of the eastern 33 feet. (Myrmel vs. Board of County Road Commission) The court found in favor of the Road Commission that with a width of 66 feet, the Nestrom Road end was under jurisdiction of the Road Commission. As part of this settlement, the Road Commission compensated the easterly property owner $3,000. Next, Fruitland Township paid the Road Commission $4,957.35 to bring in fill and gravel topping at the road end. Fruitland Township then placed the concrete launch pad at township expense with Road Commission approval. The road end has existed this way since 1984 until last summer.

Fruitland Township has taken a position that they want the ramp back and any blockage posts removed. The past intent of the township was that this was usable for small craft only.

The WLA Board has supported Fruitland's position at this time. The factors we considered at the Nestrom Road end are: