Access to Oswego Lake More Likely

The battle for public access to tony Oswego Lake, which is off-limits to nearly all Oregonians, reached another milestone last week.

After the second phase of a trial over the question of whether non-Lake Oswego residents may use the lake for recreation, a Clackamas County jury told Judge Kathie F. Steele that the general public should be allowed to access the waters from Millennium Plaza Park at the lake’s eastern end.

That’s not the final word on the case that has crawled through Oregon courts since Mark Kramer and Todd Prager first sued for access in 2012 (“Locking Up Oswego Lake,” WW, April 11, 2012). Kramer wanted to put his kayak in the water and Prager wished to swim in the lake.

The case went up to the Oregon Supreme Court, which remanded it to Clackamas County Circuit Court to answer two questions: Are the lake’s waters public (a judge ruled in 2023 that they are) and, if so, what should the remedy be?

The jury considered a series of questions last week after two weeks of trial. Judge Steele will now write a final order in the coming months. That order is likely to follow the jury’s guidance—although it doesn’t have to.

Prager cheered the result. “The jury’s decision protects the fundamental rights of who we are as Oregonians,” he says. “The city of Lake Oswego is at a crossroads. Do they want to continue spending taxpayer dollars so that a private corporation can monopolize access to a public resource, or are they willing to work with Oregonians to realize their rights to a state-owned lake?”