Lake Oswego Corporation president discusses public access at Oswego Lake

A significant legal decision has been made in the long-standing battle over public access to Oswego Lake.

On March 4, Judge Kathie F. Steele ruled that the City of Lake Oswego’s ordinance restricting public access to the lake is unlawful.

The ruling mandates that the city must immediately allow access through Millennium Plaza Park, although access through Sundeleaf Plaza and Headlee Walkway remains restricted.

Justin Harnish, the Lake Oswego Corporation board president, speaks with KATU News about opening Oswego Lake to the public, and their efforts to appeal the decision.

As of March 3, LOC, which manages the lake for the benefit of roughly 4,000 households with private access, no longer holds the power to block public access to the nearly 400-acre body of water.

Harnish says the battle is not merely over maintaining exclusive access, but says it’s a matter of safety given that LOC’s patrols are not getting paid to enforce state and county rules on the lake nor to keep people who are not members of the LOC safe.

"We all pay our dues. We all, in order to get our stickers to put our paddle boats, our boards, our motor boats on this lake, we have to sign off on a safety that we understand the rules," Harnish said. "It’s a safeguard. It’s a protection so that we know that what we’re doing, we move in a counterclockwise position or a counterclockwise way. We paddle inside the buoy lines or paddle and swim zones. The people that are coming on this lake don’t even know it."

KATU’s Christina Giardinelli has more on this story here: https://katu.com/news/local/appeal-filed-in-13-year-legal-battle-over-access-to-oswego-lake
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Author: KATU News
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News post in at: March 15, 2025, 3:00 am.

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