Natural Resources – Water – Riparian Rights
\n<\/b>Michigan has always recognized a landowner’s right to reasonably use surface waters immediately adjacent to the landowner’s\u00a0property. This right is known as\u00a0riparian rights. Landowners bordering a waterway are considered riparians<\/i>. Michigan defines riparian law as that is bounded by, or includes therein, a natural watercourse. This definition, particularly the phrase \u201cnatural watercourse,\u201d excludes artificial watercourses (canals, drainage and irrigation ditches, flumes, and other man-made waterways) from riparian rights.<\/p>\n
A riparian (defined above) is a person who is in possession of riparian real estate, or in some instances, a non-riparian may obtain riparian rights through an easement or license. Michigan law recognizes the following riparian property rights:<\/p>\n
\u2022The right to exclusive possession and use of the shore;
\n\u2022Ownership of the bottomlands of the adjacent waterbody to the middle of the lake;
\n\u2022Access to navigable waters;
\n\u2022The right to install a dock out to navigable waters;
\n\u2022The right to anchor a boat to owner\u2019s bottomland; and,
\n\u2022The right to use the water for domestic purposes.<\/p>\n
Riparian law distinguishes between \u201cnatural<\/em>\u201d uses and \u201cartificial<\/em>\u201d uses. Natural uses include those that meet the domestic needs of the riparian landowner, including: drinking, washing, and watering gardens or a small livestock herd.<\/p>\n Artificial uses are those which increase comfort or economic benefit that are not essential to existence. Use of water for artificial purposes by riparians must meet two requirements: (1) the use must be only for the benefit of the riparian land; and, (2) the use must be reasonable in relation to the rights of other riparian users. This is known as\u00a0the reasonable use doctrine.<\/p>\n Riparians with land bordering the Great Lakes do not<\/strong> have all of the above rights. The rights of Great Lakes riparians differs in the following ways. Firstly, the bottomland of the Great Lakes is owned by the state, and held in trust for the public. Secondly, Great Lakes Riparians do not have exclusive use of the entire bank and shore. This is a contentious issue, in Glass v Goeckel<\/i>, 473 Mich 667, the Michigan Supreme Court decided\u00a0that there is a servitude<\/em>\u00a0for the benefit of the public that extends from the water\u2019s edge of the Great Lakes to the ordinary high water mark (\u201cOHWM\u201d). In this thin strip of land the public is allowed to walk without permission from the riparian.<\/p>\n The OHWM is difficult to ascertain, the Michigan Supreme Court Defined it as: The rights of riparians whose lands border navigable waters are limited to the extent that public rights exist in such waters. The public right to navigate a waterway clearly includes the right to use it for transportation and in most cases recreational use. For example: riparians right to build a dock or wharf out can be limited by the public\u2019s use of the waterway; if a riparian\u2019s dock obstructs navigation, the dock can be removed.<\/p>\n Riparians are also subject to reasonable governmental regulations. These regulations may include: (1) what type of boats are permitted on a lake; (2) the minimum frontage required for lake-access real estate; or (3) how many boats may be launched or stored at a single property.<\/p>\n Lakefront property owners should contact their attorney for any questions they may have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Natural Resources – Water – Riparian Rights Michigan has always recognized a landowner’s right to reasonably use surface waters immediately adjacent to the landowner’s\u00a0property. This right is known as\u00a0riparian rights. Landowners bordering a waterway are considered riparians. Michigan defines riparian law as that is bounded by, or includes therein, a natural watercourse. This definition, particularly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-larticles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zamzowfabian.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zamzowfabian.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zamzowfabian.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zamzowfabian.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zamzowfabian.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zamzowfabian.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zamzowfabian.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zamzowfabian.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zamzowfabian.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n“[T]he point on the bank or shore up to which the presence and action of the water is so continuous as to leave a distinct mark either by erosion, destruction of terrestrial vegetation, or other easily recognized characteristic. And where the bank or shore at any particular place is of such a character that is impossible or difficult to ascertain where the point of ordinary high-water mark is, recourse may be had to other places on the bank or shore of the same stream or lake to determine whether a given stage of water is above or below ordinary high-water mark.<\/em>”\u00a0Glass v Goeckel,<\/i> at 691.<\/p>\n