Are the owners of multimillion-dollar condominiums on Boston’s Commercial Wharf at risk of losing their homes because of a state oversight?

That’s the question raised by legislation seeking to grandfather the residential use for 36 units which were converted from commercial space without state approval in the 1980s. But the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation says the bill by state Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, D-3rd Suffolk, appears to be an end-run around regulations that protect public access to the waterfront.

As the legislative session draws to a close, CLF and other waterfront advocacy groups are lobbying against a vote on the bill, entitled, “preventing residents from being forced to leave.”

Michlewitz said he became he became aware of the condo owners’ plight and submitted the bill in January to protect their property rights. The bill grandfathers the current mix of commercial and residential condos at Commercial Wharf, saying the uses conform with the 1964 Downtown Waterfront-Faneuil Hall Urban Renewal plan under which the former Boston Redevelopment Authority redeveloped the pier.

“The government agencies that monitor (waterfront development) either green-lighted or turned a blind eye to these (residential conversions),” Michlewitz said. “You have folks in there now that have bought their units in good faith and I’m concerned about these people being forced to turn their units back into commercial space.”

From 1984 to 2000, a developer converted 36 of the 90 units in the 72,000-square-foot Commercial Wharf East building from commercial to residential condos but failed to seek approval for a waterways license from the state Department of Environment Protection, according to a DEP administrative ruling issued in January 2016. The license is required for changes to properties containing tidelands.

DEP originally issued an enforcement action in 2004, but the Commercial Wharf East Condo Association argued that the conversion didn’t constitute a change in use and filed an appeal in Suffolk Superior Court. The suit is still active.

Deanna Moran, CLF’s director of environmental planning, said singling out Commercial Wharf for special legislation skirts Chapter 91, the state law that regulates waterfront development and requires public access such as ground-floor accommodations.

Moran disputed that condo owners’ property could be at risk. CLF only wants the association to apply for a waterways license from DEP, as should have been done decades ago, she said.

“I don’t see Massachusetts DEP being in the business of evicting anyone,” Moran said. “I can see how it would be frightening for (owners) who are on the hook for the developer’s mistakes. We want to see something that happens on that site that works for everyone.”

As the Legislative session winds to an end next week, the bill was still in committee and it was unclear whether it would reach the House floor for a vote.