Walking along the beach is inherent in the exercise of traditionally protected public rights
The State Supreme Courts in Michigan and New Jersey have enforced public access to the beach under the public trust doctrine. Strolling along a Great Lakes beach is no crime, Michigan’s Supreme Court ruled Friday in upholding the time-honored tradition of beach-walking. The court held in Glass v. Goeckel, 126409 (July 29, 2005), that “walking along the lakeshore is inherent in the exercise of traditionally protected public rights” under the public trust doctrine. The decision reverses a state Court of Appeals judgment that walking along the shoreline was trespassing.
In Raleigh Avenue Beach Association v. Atlantic Beach Club, Inc., A-40-04 (July 26, 2005), the New Jersey Supreme Court held that under the public trust doctrine, a 480 foot wide stretch of upland dry sand beach operated as a private beach club must be available to the general public at a reasonable fee for services rendered by the owners and approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The Court highlighted the longstanding public access to and use of the beach, a condition of a coastal development permit requiring access and arguably use, the public demand, the lack of publicly owned beaches in the town, and the use of the beach as a business enterprise.
In the meantime, the people of California continue the struggle to free the beach against wealthy home owners in Malibu’s Broad Beach and other hot spots up and down the coast, as reported on the Center’s web site and in our Policy Report Free the Beach!
