Court ruling robs five generations of private beach; PLF challenges unconstitutional double-whammy land grab

Court ruling robs five generations of private beach

PLF challenges unconstitutional double-whammy land grab

Having grown up on Chicago’s southside, Rady Pavlock credits his wife, Kimberley, for his first campfire and lasting love of the beach. “Kimberley introduced me to the beach when I first met her,” Randy recalled. “We went up to her family’s cottage in Porter, Indiana. We had a campfire on the beach. I never had a campfire in my whole life.”

Randy was so taken with the beach that in 1976, he and Kimberley bought a small beach house of their own that was so basic, it even lacked running water. A self-taught handyman, Randy enlisted friends and family to rebuild the house practically from the ground up. It’s been a beloved summer and weekend getaway from nearby Chicago ever since.

With the addition of children and grand- children, the family legacy along the Hoosier State’s 45-mile Lake Michigan shoreline now spans five generations. Randy cherishes the memories they’ve built at the beach— teaching his grandson to fish, marveling at his granddaughters’ scenic drawings and paintings, keeping the beach clean, spotting any assortment of wildlife, and enjoying family celebrations and fish fries with neighbors.

But recent government actions have cast a threatening shadow over the beach and everything the Pavlocks have grown to cherish.

Like all of the other Porter Beach property owners, the Pavlocks’ documented property line stretches beyond the beach’s vegetation line, or high-water mark, often to the water’s edge. Likewise, the Pavlocks pay taxes on every inch of land on their deed. This private beach hadn’t had a public problem for more than 40 years. Randy and their beachfront neighbors made sure of it in 1980 when the government created the Indiana Dunes National Park surrounding their properties. They and the government agreed to an easement allowing the public to walk across their private beach. That is, although the public couldn’t picnic, fish, or loiter on the private beachfront, they could walk the beach.

“The easement agreement was a pro- mise signed by both parties. It gave us some security that we wouldn’t have to worry about the beach,” Randy said. “Or so we thought.”

A 2018 Indiana Supreme Court ruling abruptly moved every- one’s property line from what’s depicted in their deeds to the high-water mark. The decision gave the state exclusive ownership of nearly all the dry beach it had recognized as private property since the early 1800s.

“I just couldn’t believe that the court could be so bold as to just say, ‘Well, now the state owns your land,’” Randy said. “All of a sudden, the agreement that we had signed in 1980 was worthless. It’s hard when everything you worked for your whole life is threatened by a government rationale that doesn’t make any sense.”

As if the court’s radical change wasn’t overreach enough, state lawmakers and the governor enshrined the ruling into law and expanded the public’s allowable activities from just walking to anything you can do at the beach—including camping. Neither the ruling nor the law included any compensation to the beach owners for effectively denying them use of what were previously their own backyards—even though the beaches still show up on property deeds and tax rolls.

In other words, the legislature cemented the court’s decision that the Pavlocks and their neighbors never really owned the beach portion of their property and therefore will get no compensation for it. Yet, they must still pay property taxes.

“The Indiana Supreme Court and legislature transformed established law by moving lakefront owners’ property lines, irrespective of their deeds or titles,” said PLF attorney Chris Kieser. “Well, the Constitution says that government cannot transfer private property to the public without paying for it, regardless of government branch.”

Represented by PLF free of charge, the Pavlocks are fighting back. They’ve filed a federal lawsuit to defend their right to just compensation for efforts by the Indiana Supreme Court and legislature to transform their private property into a public beach.

Randy has never hesitated to fight for his family or his business when necessary. Thus, his decision to fight for property rights—his family’s and those of all Hoosiers—was an easy one.

“Do I like being involved in a lawsuit? No, but our family’s history with the beach is a cause worth fighting for because we put so much work and effort and love into maintaining it,” Randy explained.

He added, “If you love a place like we love our beach, you have a vested interest in protecting it.”