Coastal Services Center

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For Further Consideration

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Hypothetical Case Scenario

Following the closure of a naval base, the General Services Administration announced plans to sell the property, on which are located many acres of filled lands.

• Develop USA, Inc. has put together a bid proposal that would convert the property to a gated residential community.
• The local Congressman is promoting legislation that would grant the naval base property to Conglomerated Industries, Inc. in exchange for an ecologically rare tract of timber.
• The state has announced that any disposition of the naval base property must be consistent with state policy that provides for the creation of public access upon use conversion of filled lands, and has requested that any deed for the property include public access easements.
• The General Services Administration has refused the state’s request and the state has filed for an injunction to block the transfer of the property.

1. What additional facts are needed about the property title held by the federal government?
2. What argument can be made that the Public Trust interest cannot be revived once it is extinguished?
3. What arguments can be made that the Public Trust interest in the filled lands is merely dormant and can be revived?

Suggested Case Studies

In the 1892 case of Shively v. Bowlby, a dispute over whether a federal or state grant of lands under navigable waters was controlling, the U.S. Supreme Court discussed the pre-statehood status of lands beneath submerged lands as one of federal policy rather than constitutional limitation.

Further Reading

Pisarski, Genevieve, “Testing the Limits of the Federal Navigational Servitude,” Ocean and Coastal Law Journal, Volume 2, Number 2 (1997).