View full sizeEverton Bailey Jr./The OregonianA lawsuit challenging the Lake Oswego City Council’s rule that the public can’t access Oswego Lake from public property was dismissed in federal court.

A federal judge in Portland dismissed a lawsuit Thursday that challenged whether the city of Lake Oswego has the right to restrict people from accessing the lake from public property.

Judge Ancer L. Haggerty said state court, not federal court, was the appropriate venue for the case, because Oregon has a presumed ownership interest in the lake and “should have an opportunity to weigh in on this matter” without being forced into federal court.

Haggerty said that although federal issues are involved, they could be adjudicated in state court.

The plaintiffs, Portland attorney Mark Prager and Lake Oswego planning commissioner Todd Prager, plan to file the lawsuit in state court next week, Thane Tienson.

They filed the lawsuit in May, a month after the city passed rulesprohibiting public access to the lake from city property, threatening violators with citations. One city property, Millennium Plaza Park, has steps that lead right into the water.

The lawsuit was intended to resolve a decades-long dispute fought at the highest levels of government, reaching the U.S. Congress in 1976 and the state attorney general’s office in 1959 and 2005.

The suit contended that Oregon law grants public access to the lake regardless of who owns the underlying soil and requires the city to pursue and protect that right.

The plaintiffs claimed wealthy landowners bordering the lake are unjustly keeping others out. They asked the court to declare the lake open to public recreation and to permanently restrain the city from erecting fences or signs that discourage access.

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Under state law, if a waterway is navigable, it must be open to public recreation. The plaintiffs asserted the lake was historically navigable, and cited a 1959 state attorney general opinion to back it up. In 2005, Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers again addressed the topic, writing that all navigable waterways should be open to the public, even if privately owned.

The city asked for the dismissal, repeatedly saying that Kramer and Prager were “forum shopping” in legal documents and that the state must be involved in the case.

Mayor Jack Hoffman said he is glad at the outcome.

“I have long said that our actions relating to the design, use and staffing of a park and the resulting park rules are not related to the legal status of Oswego Lake,” Hoffman said. “Our actions are consistent with our comprehensive plan and available resources.”