INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Supreme Court is taking up a long-running dispute over private property rights and public access to Lake Michigan.
The Times of Northwest Indiana reports the high court will decide in the coming weeks whether to vacate a December state Court of Appeals decision that all parties to the case believe was decided incorrectly.
The case includes the questions of how far beyond the lake’s actual water Indiana’s ownership extends and who possesses the land that’s sometimes covered by water.
The appeals court affirmed that Indiana’s interest extends to the “ordinary high water mark.” But it also held that the boundary of waterfront properties is the lake’s ordinary low water mark and that possession of the beach in between is shared by property owners and the state.