Thats not entirely true. One dock is allowed as long as it is for public use as they consider that an aid to access. Overnight mooring, partying, swimming, etc are not. I have never seen a case where they even upheld the access rights when the road parallels the lake in this state, I know they've overturned some rulings on that lately.
I feel I should qualify that statement. At the lower court levels the decisions will be far more varied depending on the leanings of the presiding judge. If the case works its way up the appellate court system there is fairly clear precedent which so far has been followed. You will also see people frequently arguing or trying to change the law on access to the Great Lakes, where currently anything below the mean high water mark is public, simply because some people don't like watching others walk up and down the beach. It only takes one person with the audacity to go far a walk on public land to launch a court case spanning years and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
As far as your last statement, well some people have problems if they can so much as see a person, boat, or dock out their window, so just saying he had problems with it doesn't mean a thing without some legitimate documentation. Particularly if he recently purchased the property, he may not have performed due diligence and realized what was there, or he may have had plans of revoking others access at the time of purchase. Not like he'd admit it, though.
