A popular marina near the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers must vacate the waterfront by the end of November, a Pierce County judge ordered earlier this month, ruling in favor of the city of Prescott in a long-running shoreline dispute between the municipality and owners of Leo’s Landing Marina.

Jan Anderson, whose family operates the marina, is expected to appeal the ruling.

The dockside marina has greeted area boaters for decades, boasting its claim as the only liquor and convenience store actually on the water of the St. Croix River, offering passersby the chance to buy an extra lifejacket, replace a forgotten tube of sunscreen or stock up on ice cream treats for passengers on a daylong boat trip.

But as the city of Prescott launched a widescale, yearslong riverfront development project many years ago, officials desired to turn that portion of shoreline into a city-owned transient dock. At the heart of the court case was: Who truly owns the portion of land in front of Leo’s Landing marina, as well as the riverfront rights that go along with it?

The marina was closed this year, as the city declined to renew its lease with the Anderson family, leading to the recent court action.

Defining the land lines

Back in March 1986, the late Richard Anderson purchased the riverfront property and Leo’s Landing Marina, with the city of Prescott and the Anderson family agreeing to a shoreline lease soon after. A marina has operated at the site going back to the 1950s.

In recent years, the city set out on long-range plans to improve its riverfront, a formal process going back to at least 2014 when a committee was formed to pursue potential redevelopment options along the St. Croix River. A first phase of the riverfront improvement project was completed in 2022, and in 2025 the Prescott City Council approved plans for phase two.

The second phase included the area where Leo’s Landing sits, and called for removal of the private slip business in favor of a city-owned, short-term boat dock, among other amenities.

At the same time, ownership of the triangular parcel of land near Leo’s Landing came into question: Did the city of Prescott own the property’s riparian rights — legal rights to the shoreline where a landowner can build docks or access the water — or were those rights guaranteed to landowner Jan Anderson? Also complicating matters came the question of those lease agreements signed through the years by the Anderson family.

The disputed rights of the Anderson property include about 100 feet of riverfront. The lease included about 180 feet of riverfront rights in total.

On Aug. 7, the court ruled in favor of the city, deciding the existence of the lease and interpretation of historical documents showed that the city indeed owns a small sliver of land between the Andersons’ property and the riverfront. The court also ruled that the business owners were informed that continued operation of the marina was not guaranteed, declaring that the city made their plans well known to the Anderson family.

No appeal had been officially filed by presstime, but attorney Kevin S. Sandstrom expects his clients to do so.

“We think that the city’s actions are a governmental taking of private property rights, without just compensation as required by law,” said Sandstrom, who also handles media requests for the Anderson family.

In addition to losing their business, the Andersons would be forced to incur more than $100,000 in costs to remove the marina from the river, Sandstrom said. The process would likely involve extracting the poles and footings that go deep into the riverbed through use of a crane barge.

Land rights dispute emerges

Over a period of time through 2018 and 2019, according to Sandstrom, the Andersons noticed land surveyors hired by the city of Prescott on the waterfront area. The surveyors later ascertained that the Anderson family’s triangular parcel of land did not include the shoreline.

Prescott City Administrator Matt Wolf came to the city in August 2021, when riverfront planning was well underway. He said the city had been looking to re-establish property lines in the riverfront area because they had not been reviewed in some areas going back to when the city was formed in the 1850s.

Through that surveying work and through riverfront redevelopment planning sessions, the city began reviewing the lease agreement with the Andersons, Wolf said.

For the next few years, the relationship between Prescott and the Andersons changed as the city outlined a desire to no longer offer a lease for Leo’s Landing to operate.

Through the previous years that the Andersons owned and operated the marina, Sandstrom said the relationship between the landowners and the city had been positive. However, as the land rights discussion continued, the relationship deteriorated.

By 2024, the Prescott City Council approved a one-year lease for Leo’s Landing, but, according to city council minutes from that time, decided to pursue legal recourse to confirm its lakeshore ownership of the site.

As part of Prescott’s riverfront development project, the city proposed placing a transient dock in the area of Leo’s Landing. Wolf said the concept includes roughly 25 boat slips, envisioning a scenario where boaters would park for an hour or two, visit downtown Prescott and then continue along on the St. Croix River.

Wolf said city officials expect the transient docks to have a positive impact on local businesses, with the dock rentals also providing revenue to the city.

In terms of the riverfront redevelopment project outside of this contested area, Prescott has completed phase two, Wolf said, which includes improvements to the parking lot and boat launch, including new bathrooms, along with some small play areas.

Prescott officials will now begin planning the design of the transient dock, Wolf said.

Prescott has received $53,395 in Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources boating grant funds to assist with the design of the proposed city dock. Under terms of that grant, the design needs to be completed by September 2027.

“At the end of the day, I think what the city is looking to do is make this a public amenity, and looking at the riverfront as a public amenity, how we can best improve the community overall long term,” Wolf said.

‘Sense of community destroyed’

Sarah VanDenBoom of River Falls, Wis., can recall boating on the St. Croix River with her grandfather as a 5-year-old, going to see the visually striking concourse between the waters of the Mississippi and the St. Croix rivers. They would end the trip with a quick stop at Leo’s for ice cream.

Now 43, VanDenBoom rented a boat slip at Leo’s Landing for several years. The Anderson family helped many boaters in need of a quick fix for many of the little things that can catch people off guard, she said. Many times, Colton Anderson, who operates the marina, pitched in and helped a boater in need, VanDenBoom said, calling the family “incredible stewards of the river.”

In July 2025, Colton Anderson was the first on the scene of a boat explosion in the St. Croix River, not too far from Leo’s Landing. Anderson spotted the fire, jumped in his own boat and pushed the fiery watercraft away from a dock and other boats, limiting additional damage or injuries due to the fire.

Leo’s Landing and the Anderson family went beyond simply offering a place to park your boat, VanDenBoom said.

“It’s a privilege to have a slip, obviously, but it’s really a sense of community that has been destroyed,” VanDenBoom said. “It’s horrible that it’s going to be gone. It’s just sad.”

As a child in the 1950s, Prescott resident Tony Tobias walked the docks, then owned by Mitchell and Lillian Todd, daydreaming about someday owning a boat. Before becoming Leo’s Landing in the 1980s, named for then-owner Leo Simones, the marina was once known as “Captain Dick’s,” for owner Dick Schickling.

Tobias’s daughters worked the marina’s gas pumps for the Anderson family. Tobias said Dick Anderson was the “river newspaper,” the person to seek out for the latest river goings-on.

It will be hard for Prescott to replace the history and community of Leo’s Landing, said Tobias, 74.

“It’s like watching a TV program where you can see the people you remember, and your memories just fading away. It feels like that to me with Leo; and then Dick Anderson and his wife, Jan; standing out on the dock with Colton. He was down there at 2 years old with his little life jacket on. I remember when he was born,” Tobias said. “Seeing the empty slips, the covered fuel pumps, and the locked door just hurts every time I go by.”