(The video in this story is from April, 2018)
The Oregon Supreme Court has decided not to rule on whether a suburban Portland lake should be considered public, a report said.
The court declined to determine if Oswego Lake qualifies as a “navigable waterway,” The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Thursday.
The high court’s 41-page written ruling Thursday failed to end decades of debate over who can use the lake.
The court sent the 2012 lawsuit involving the 0.63-square-mile (1.63-square-kilometer) body of water back to Clackamas County Circuit Court for further consideration.
Kayaker Mark Kramer and open water swimmer Todd Prager asked the high court to overturn previous rulings denying them access to the lake 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Portland.
Posted signs indicate the body of water managed by the Lake Oswego Corporation is private. Others who have tried to use it were asked to leave or threatened with tickets, records said.
Nearly 700 lakeshore landowners pay yearly dues for upkeep to the nonprofit corporation, which has managed the property since 1942. Another 3,400 landowners who do not live on the lake must access it through about 20 private easements, for which they also pay dues.
The Lake Oswego City Council passed a resolution in 2012 banning the public from accessing the water from property it owns called Millennium Plaza Park.
An attorney representing Kramer and Prager argued in 2018 that the case is about the right of the people to use and access all navigable waters in the state, not just Oswego Lake.
“It’s about the quality of life of all Oregonians,” attorney Thane Tienson said.