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Bonney Lake council approves change to personal watercraft rules and funds buoys
Summary
The Bonney Lake City Council approved AB 26-17 to correct a scriveners error and replace a 5-mph enforcement metric with a wake-based standard; the ordinance also included a $34,000 line from the ending fund balance to purchase buoys for newly defined no-wake areas.
The Bonney Lake City Council on Feb. 10 approved AB 26-17, an amendment to the Bonney Lake Municipal Code to clarify personal watercraft operating standards and to fund new navigational buoys.
Council members moved and seconded the ordinance after staff explained that the update corrects a scriveners error and replaces a difficult-to-enforce 5 mph metric near shore with a visually enforceable definition of a wake. A council member explained the change was intended to address newer wake boats that can create large waves at slow speeds.
"We went to a wake, which was defined as producing a white frothy aerated wake," a staff member said, describing the language the city attorney recommended so officers could more easily identify violations near docks and shorelines.
The ordinance also set aside $34,000 from the ending fund balance to buy and replace buoys coinciding with the no-wake zone changes. Council discussion clarified that the edits to items 2 and 3 of the ordinance were substantive (not just scriveners corrections) and that a separate scrivener correction under section j was included.
The council approved the ordinance by voice vote. The agenda description noted the amendment provides severability and establishes an effective date; the meeting record does not specify the published effective date.
Why this matters: the change shifts enforcement from a speed-based measurement that officers said is hard to capture in the field to a visible standard, and it funds physical markers (buoys) to make the no-wake area clearer for boaters and enforcement.
Next steps: The council adopted the amendment during the meeting and did not record individual roll-call votes in the transcript; implementation steps (buoy procurement and placement) were described as forthcoming work by staff.
