Cause No: Indiana Natural Resources Commission (NRC) No. 23-036W
Culminating in the 2018 Indiana Supreme Court case of Gunderson v. State, CLC won a hard-fought legal battle affirming that the beaches of Lake Michigan below the common law or natural ordinary high water mark (OHWM) are held in trust by the State for the benefit of all Hoosiers to enjoy. The Court also confirmed that the DNR, as the steward of these public trust resources, cannot fritter away these public trust rights through its regulatory authority. In the wake of Gunderson, the Indiana General Assembly codified these principles when it passed the Public Trust Statute to eliminate any question that the citizens of Indiana have a “vested right to enjoy the natural scenic beauty of Lake Michigan” for recreation and other purposes—meaning Hoosiers have a legally protected right to enjoy the lakeshore in “conditions produced by nature without manmade additions or alternations.” Ind. Code § 14-26-2.1-4 (emphasis added). Despite the legislature’s clear mandate, CLC had to take the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) back to court for again violating the public trust.
This time, DNR approved the construction of a mile-long stone revetment along the Town of Ogden Dunes’ stretch of shoreline, all funded by beachfront homeowners for their private benefit. DNR approved the massive stone wall without delineating Lake Michigan’s natural OHWM and, thus, had no idea whether or how much of the revetment would be built on public trust land. Without a proper OHWM delineation, DNR could not have evaluated the true nature and extent of public trust impacts, whether mitigation could be appropriate, or if the permit should be denied so as not to alienate public trust rights. DNR also flatly ignored the serious concerns raised by the National Park Service that the revetment will cause devastating erosion and destroy critical habitat in the adjacent Indiana Dunes National Park—one of the nation’s most biodiverse parks that is treasured and visited by millions of people each year. Because DNR can and must do better, we filed a legal challenge on behalf of Save the Dunes to revoke DNR’s unlawful approval of the revetment.
Current status: Following briefing in March 2025, the NRC denied both parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment finding factual issues remain on the location of Lake Michigan’s OHWM. Because the proper statutory interpretation of the definition of Lake Michigan’s OHWM in Indiana’s Public Trust Statute is a pure question of law, not fact, we filed a motion to reconsider and correct error, as did DNR, asking the NRC to decide that key legal question before conducting an evidentiary hearing. In response, the NRC cancelled the hearing and agreed to reconsider its summary judgment ruling.
Shortly thereafter, we learned that the Town started construction of the revetment. We immediately moved for an emergency stay, which the NRC granted, ordering the Town to cease construction and remove all machinery, equipment, and stones pending a final ruling in the case. With the stay in place and motions for reconsideration pending, the case was transferred on July 1, 2025, to the newly created Office of Administrative Law Proceedings (OALP) where a new Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) was appointed.
In September 2025, the Town announced that it had abandoned its plans to build the revetment, withdrew the challenged DNR permit, and moved to dismiss the case as moot, which the OALP granted. While we are pleased that our legal advocacy halted the project, we remain concerned that DNR will continue to issue permits for construction along the lakefront based on its flawed interpretation of the Public Trust Statute in Gunderson. If allowed, DNR’s unlawful permits will privatize the Lakefront and erode Hoosiers’ public trust rights one permitting decision at a time. Accordingly, on Dec. 17, 2025, we brought judicial review proceedings in Porter Superior Court.
Case Documents
