ERIE

Beachcombers demand walking space

The Associated Press

Property owners are more than willing to share space with occasional beachcombers strolling along the 40 miles of Lake Erie shoreline in northwestern Pennsylvania.

But drunks, troublemakers and skinny dippers are out of the question, said Brett Johnson, president of Presque Isle Condominiums, just west of Presque Isle State Park.

"No Trespassing" signs along the beach erected by Johnson’s organization and the nearby Beach Haven Condominium Association have generated complaints from visitors who say their public access rights are being violated. But residents in the up

scale housing developments say they shouldn’t have to put up with just anything or anyone.

"There’s public access and there’s public abuse, and it’s the abuse we’re trying to keep a lid on," Johnson said.

Current state policy to be enforced by the state Office of Coastal Zone Management says that the public has a right to walk on private property between high and low water marks on the beach.

The low water mark is actually in the water, so the public access area is essentially the shoreline, said CZM compliance officer Donald Benczkowski. The high water mark gives visitors more beach space to cover than just at the water’s edge.

While most deeds to the beachfront property convey ownership to the low water mark, state officials say the public access area is like a sidewalk that passes through a homeowner’s yard.

CZM has asked the condominium associations to move their signs back to the high-water mark or remove them altogether. Benczkowski said structures in the public access areas must have permits, and the signs imply that the entire beach is off limits to the public.

Last week the associations removed the original large signs, and replaced them with smaller ones in the same locations.

The Freeport Yacht Club in North East has a fence with signs that declare the area up to the water’s edge a private beach, even though the high water mark is within the fenced area.

Benczkowski said the state is holding off on enforcing public access policies while the state Department of Environmental Protection reviews a new public access policy. That proposal would provide public access at the shoreline with no regard to high or low water levels.

DEP spokeswoman Freda Tarbell said the state will make a decision regarding the proposed policy revision later this year. If approved, "I’m going to have a lot of work to do in a short period of time," Benczkowski said.