Lawyers Battle (Again) Over Eagle Access

By Louie Stout

The often delayed construction of the proposed public access on Eagle Lake near Edwardsburg continues to drag on without results.

The DNR purchased land on the east side of Eagle Lake Road for access development in August of 2014. Although it remains public property, it has sat undeveloped.

That’s because the Eagle Lake Improvement Association – as it has done for years – continues to pour money into a legal fight to prevent access to one of southwest Michigan’s most popular fishing lakes.

Lakefront property owners now are contesting a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality ruling that the proposed site causes no environmental harm and meets the needs of the state. The project currently is being debated between lake association attorneys and Michigan’s Attorney General, DNR legal office and the DEQ legal office.

All of this has come after the lake group lost a lawsuit against the township and the DNR over whether the access qualified as a park.

Since then, the Cass County Road Commission and the DEQ approved the access plans despite lake association objections.

While DNR officials remain confident the access will be built, it concedes construction likely won’t begin before fall.

“It’s in the hands of lawyers and that could take months to resolve,” one DNR official told Michiana Outdoors.

In the meantime, anglers are forced to use a dilapidated boat ramp and roadside parking that creates traffic hazards – hazards that the new access would eliminate.