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Originally Posted by aaron38
Hadn't paid any attention to this, finally decided to look into it. This case is truly ridiculous and has nothing to do with trying to preserve current parkland. This site isn't a park, it's fully developed. It looks like a park at first from the aerials, but that's because the eastern half has a green roof. From street level it's just a building, built out right to the sidewalk. No current parkland is being developed.
They're arguing that the site was the historic Lake Michigan shoreline, and therefore can't be developed. But today it's across a 4 lane road from the lakefront parks. I haven't seen anyone in Chicago claiming that Streeterville can't be developed because it used to be in the lake.
So I'd say the Milwaukee courts made the right decision, but I wouldn't extrapolate this result to what's been discussed in Chicago.
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Well it comes down to the Wisconsin Public Trust Doctrine. I'm not sure if Illinois has a similar document in it's constitution. Personally I think the doctrine is being abused in this situation and I'm glad that Judge Foley understands the significance of it as it pertains to navigation, not land that's been out of the water and used continuously for over a hundred years, mainly be a railroad that was a private business.