Nasewaupee Files Suit for Water Access off Elms Road

The Town of Nasewaupee is seeking an injunction in Door County Circuit Court for public access to the bay of Green Bay from Elms Road, which is accessed from County M. Photo from Google Maps.

The Town of Nasewaupee filed a civil complaint Dec. 12 in Door County Circuit Court seeking an injunction for access to the bay of Green Bay off of Elms Road, which is accessed from County M.

The complaint – which names Clarice L.M. Jacobsen of 4143 Elms Road; Brian J. Jacobsen of Prospect Heights, Illinois; and Karen Valdez of Park Ridge, Illinois, as defendants – alleges the defendants have blocked access from the edge of the paved area of Elms Road to the waters of the bay in a disputed area where defendants claim there is no town highway or public access.

Jacobsen and Valdez are listed in the complaint as each being one-half owners at 4143 Elms Road. Clarice L.M. Jacobsen is listed as holding a life estate remainder interest in the property.

The complaint further states that a highway order in 1930 was issued by the town to lay out Elms Road as a town highway running west to the bay, but because of a scrivener’s error, the location of Elms Road was misprinted in the official highway order.

A survey prepared for a previous owner of the property in 1960, the complaint states, confirmed the existence of a town road in the disputed area, which had been used as an access point to the bay for more than 20 years, along with multiple deeds of property to the north describing the road existing in the disputed area.

“The town has a legally protectable interest in maintaining a town highway through the disputed area,” the complaint states. “The controversy between the parties is ripe for determination by the court.”

The town is seeking a temporary injunction to prevent the defendants from blocking public access to the bay from Elms Road through the disputed area. Nasewaupee town chair Steve Sullivan said rocks dumped in that area are preventing bay access, such as for ice fishing or ice rescues. 

“We’ve got a number of roads that run right to the water,” he said.   

In the event the disputed area is not found in court to be a recorded highway, the town alternatively wants it to be declared an unrecorded highway, or if no highway is found to exist there, the town wants a prescriptive easement over the gravel area to the bay.

Sullivan alluded to the possibility of the town seeking access to the bay by eminent domain if it doesn’t prevail in the case now pending.

“We’re trying it this way first [by seeking an injunction],” he said. “It would be less expensive this way [than going through an eminent-domain process].”

Sullivan said the scrivener’s error listed the road as being 1,400 feet to the south, running on a property line where there is no road.