Posted on September 18, 2018
A Leland Township resident who wants people to stop trespassing on his beachfront property says signs put up this year by township officials are just making things more confusing.
Alexander Janko, whose family’s home is on Lake Michigan in Leland, is frustrated by people who continue to encroach on his privacy and by what he sees as the township’s inaction.
His recourse was to withdraw his family’s permission for dredging spoils from the Leland Harbor north of his home to be deposited on his property.
In a letter recently written to the township, Janko also said dredging equipment can no longer traverse his beach, either by the township or by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
But no such agreement between the Janko family and the Corps could be found, said Joshua Hachey, chief of operations for the technical service branch of USACE.
A property owner’s permission is needed if spoils are deposited on their private property above the ordinary high water mark (OHWM), defined by the Corps as 581.5 feet using international Great Lakes survey datum, Hachey said.
But spoils are almost always placed below the high water mark, Hachey said — even if that’s in the water.
The Corps issues permits for dredging and other projects based on the OHWM, which is a point that remains the same regardless of the lake water levels.
Permission to deposit dredging spoils on the Janko property was given in 2000 by Abigail Janko, Janko’s mother, according to a document sent to the Record-Eagle from Janko’s attorney Pete Miller.
But it is unclear who Abigail gave her permission to, as the original faxed document is so faded that the recipient can’t be seen. There is also no time frame on the document. Agreements with USACE are often multi-year and would contain a beginning and ending date, Hachey said.
There is no record of the document on file with USACE, Hachey said.
The West Reynolds Street property is co-owned by a Janko family trust, Janko and his siblings, according to Pete Miller, Janko’s Leland attorney. Bela and Abigail Janko, Janko’s parents, live there during the summer and Janko lives there year round, Miller said.
Hachey said Congress appropriated the funding to dredge the Leland Harbor this year and next. The Corps is reviewing bids for next year’s job, which will be done in the spring.
Through the years funding has been inconsistent for dredging the harbor, which shoals up nearly every year, making it impossible for some boats to enter. After a recent year when boats with drafts of more than 6 or 7 feet couldn’t get in, township residents and visitors donated about $250,000 for the township to purchase its own dredge at a cost of about $500,000.
The dredge has so far been used just once, in 2017, and spoils were deposited on the Janko property, which Janko OKed, according to Susan Och, Leland Township supervisor.
PUBLIC VERSUS PRIVATE
Public roads end at the water’s edge and those so-called ‘road-end beaches’ in recent years have become more of an issue as Michigan and Huron lake water levels have hit the high point of their cycle. Less beach is available and many municipalities struggle with beachgoers crossing the line into private space on either side of the road ends.
The Janko property abuts the 60-foot-wide, county-owned West Reynolds Street public road-end beach, known to locals as Hidden Beach. Janko has said he has an ongoing problem with people trespassing, littering and vandalizing the property.
Janko asked the Leland Township Board a little more than a year ago to do something about it, and according to the Aug. 14, 2017, minutes, the board approved putting up temporary signs that read “Leland Township Public Beach Ends Here.”
Signs were put up in June at each side of the public access points on South Beach, North Beach and on the south side of Van’s Beach. The signs are perpendicular to the beach and on their back sides where they face the private areas of the beach are the words “Leland Township Beach Access Begins Here.”
Janko in his letter said the double-sided signs are confusing beach users. He also wrote that signs describing what is a road end as South Beach are inaccurate and should be removed.
Janko did not return several phone calls to the Record-Eagle, though he sent emails. Pete Miller, his Leland attorney, said the signs make it appear that the entire beach is public.
“We worked hard with the township board to iron out language which we thought — and the township thought — would be helpful,” Miller said.
The idea to add a message to the back of the sign was Susan Och’s, who said it didn’t seem right to leave one side of the sign blank. They were installed by the township as a courtesy, she said.
“The township is not responsible for enforcing people’s property rights,” Och said. “It was a courtesy to do this. Trespassing is a problem all over the county in the summertime. Nine months out of the year we all get along pretty good.”
Leland is also not a gated community, she said.
Miller said he was dismayed that Och took it upon herself to add the language.
“She undertook to do her own thing,” Miller said. “It was very disappointing.”
WHOSE BEACH IS IT ANYWAYS?
Leland is the process of rewriting its parks ordinance to include rules and regulations that would apply to its two road-end beaches. Township Trustee Tony Borden recently expressed frustration at how long the process is taking. The board talked about updating the ordinance more than a year ago, he said.
“Here we are 13 months later with no ordinance,” Borden said. “When the board say it’s going to do something we should do it. It shouldn’t take 13 months.”
An ordinance that outlines the rules is needed before the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Office can enforce those rules, Borden said.
But Och said she has done some research and cannot find information about who should regulate road ends.
“I’m starting to suspect we are only doing this to be nice,” Och said. “Maybe we should regulate fires. Maybe we should regulate how long they can be open. Or maybe that’s just beyond our jurisdiction.”
According to Dan Wagner, managing director of the Leelanau County Road Commission, road ends are under the jurisdiction of the county. They are not supposed to be used as public beaches.
“You can’t do any activities on them that you wouldn’t do on a road,” Wagner said, including things like camping, having a campfire or drinking until the wee hours of the morning.
The road end is to be used for ingress and egress to the water and to walk along the beach, which is allowed up the OHWM on all of the Great Lakes.
Janko in an email has said people walking the shoreline is not and never has been his family’s issue.
“We support the public trust easement doctrine, conservation and the environment,” Janko wrote. “Vandalism, theft, trespassing, disorderly and drunken conduct, destroying the dunes and beach grass, however, are not acceptable … “
Many townships have put signs up on their road ends, which is OK, Wagner said. The Road Commission a few years ago drove 10-foot-tall posts into the Leland Beach inscribed with the words “public access” to mark the sides of the road. Och said people don’t see the posts, don’t understand them or ignore them.
In Glen Arbor, two road-end beaches are treated as township parks and are regulated as such, even though they are county-owned, said Supervisor Peter Van Nort. Problems with road ends are a fairly recent issue and likely are a result of the increasing popularity of the Leelanau area, he said.
“My guess is it arose because so many riparians said, ‘Hey, this property belongs to us and you can’t use it,'” Van Nort said.
In Northport, signs tell people that the village road ends are not public beaches or picnic areas and are to be used only to provide access to the Grand Traverse Bay.
“We’ve had so many near-litigations on road ends that we finally said, ‘We’re not going to have our own ordinance, we’ll let the county regulate it,'” said Barb Von Voigtlander, administrative coordinator.
Sheriff Mike Borkovich approved the signs, Von Voightlander said.
In Leland, Janko has posted security cameras on his property, which continues to have issues with trespassers, Miller said.
Och said she plans to change the signs delineating the township’s road-end beaches, she just doesn’t know when.
“It’s on my list,” she said. “It’s not high on my list.”
Source: Record Eagle
