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 Lake County
 Code of Ordinances
 Chapter 5. BOATS AND WATERWAYS

  § 5-2. Speed limits.  

Latest version.

  • (a)

    As used in this section, unless the context clearly required a different meaning:

    (1)

    Vessel is synonymous with boat and means a motor or artificially propelled vehicle and every other description of watercraft, whether motor propelled or not, including barges and airboats, other than a seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water.

    (2)

    Motorboat means any boat or vessel propelled or powered by machinery.

    (3)

    Operate or operation means to navigate or otherwise use such a boat or vessel.

    (4)

    Waters of this county means all waters lying within the boundaries of the county of such a proportion to allow thereupon the operation of a vessel or a motor boat.

    (5)

    Idle Speed — No Wake means that a vessel must proceed at a speed no greater than that which will maintain steerageway and headway; provided, however, that at no time is any vessel required to proceed so slowly that the operator is unable to maintain control over the vessel or any other vessel or object that it has under tow.

    (b)

    The board of county commissioners is authorized and empowered to regulate and set the maximum speed at which motorboats and vessels of all kinds may be operated on rivers, lakes, streams and other waterways of the county.

    (c)

    All creeks, streams, channels, and canals less than seventy-five (75) feet wide from shoreline to shoreline and located within all incorporated and unincorporated waters with non-restricted public access in Lake County shall be declared Idle Speed No Wake Zones unless posted otherwise. This subsection shall not apply in case of emergency nor to any law enforcement or emergency services patrol or rescue boat.

    (d)

    After adoption of such speed limit resolution, speed limit or wake signs shall be posted at all public boat-entrance ramps and public launching points along the portion of the waterway specified in the resolution. Additional signs may be posted as deemed necessary by the county and upon the approval of the required state and federal regulatory agencies.

    (e)

    No person shall operate a boat at a rate of speed in excess of the speed limit posted.

(Ord. No. 1979-1, §§ 1—3, 2-6-79; Ord. No. 1992-2, § 1, 2-18-92; Ord. No. 2014-34, § 2, 7-8-14)