Mercer Island’s ownership of shorelands on the eastern portion of the Luther Burbank Park waterfront has been called into question by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

A 2014 survey of the land uncovered a discrepancy about the location of the actual boundary and the boundary presumed in previous leases. The city will now have to pay a lease fee of $5,459 per year for the non-water dependent use of the shorelands.

“The main purpose is to correct a misperception that I certainly had, and I think most of the public and the council had, that the park consists of everything above the ordinary high water mark,” said Paul West, parks superintendent. “It is, in fact, park, but it is not all owned by the city.”

The steam plant and bathrooms at the public moorage are largely in the new DNR lease area, which may impact future decisions for maintenance on those buildings.

The discrepancy centers on where the shoreline starts and ends.

According to DNR, and backed up by the Washington state attorney general’s office, the state owns shorelands up to the ordinary high water at the time of Washington’s statehood, in 1889.

But Lake Washington’s ordinary high water mark changed when the lake level was lowered about 9 feet in 1916, after the completion of the Hiram Chittenden Locks.

Mercer Island believed it owned the land up to the current high water mark. There is a strip of land in between the marks, which the city will now have to lease.

DNR cannot, by law, lease land for $0, West said, hence the $5,459 fee. For 2016, the fee will be paid from the existing Parks and Recreation operating budget for Luther Burbank Park.

Legally, the strip of land has always remained in state ownership. Overlooking that detail, local parties built on it anyway.

The Seattle School District previously owned the land, and they had no lease with the state or DNR. The Boy’s Parental School built a steam plant along the shoreline.

Later, King County took over the land, signing a lease but not conducting a survey. The county added restrooms to the steam plant as part of its waterfront development in the 1970s.

The DNR first leased the Luther Burbank Park shorelands to King County in 1973 for a term of 30 years. The lease was to expire in 2003, the same year the city of Mercer Island acquired Luther Burbank Park. DNR granted an amendment to the lease to transfer tenancy to the city and extended the lease term for an additional 10 years, and that lease expired in 2013.

DNR has been taking a more comprehensive approach to managing shorelands and tidelands over the past 30 years, West said.

A potential impact of these conditions will be DNR’s early involvement in the restoration of the southeastern shoreline, which is planned for 2017.

Mercer Island has not yet considered asking DNR if the land is available for the city to purchase, said Kari Sand, city attorney.

Despite the boundary shift, “the visitor experience at the park will remain unchanged,” according to the city.

For more, see www.mercergov.org or read the Council agenda bill here.