Waukee council tables personal-transportation ordinance after hours of public comment

The Waukee City Council on Monday night voted to table the second reading of a proposed rewrite of chapter 76 — the city’s rules for bicycles and other personal transportation devices — after extensive public comment and a recommendation from the police chief to pause and refine the language.

The council’s decision followed a sustained public-comment period in which riders, advocacy groups and transportation planners urged changes. Rose Willie Farver, board president of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, said the draft includes safety-minded items but ‘‘the place of riding’’ section would force many cyclists onto sidewalks and reduce roadway visibility; she asked the council to remove sections a, b and c under that heading and to work with the coalition. ‘‘We don’t need to restrict bicycles from roadways to solve a motorized-device issue,’’ she said.

Alex Rice, executive director of The Street Collective, said a petition opposing the ordinance counted 192 signatures and warned that the draft could make bicycling illegal on many Waukee streets. Scott Sumter, founder of Bike Iowa, urged clearer definitions and statewide coordination through the Iowa DOT or MPO, arguing that education and enforcement of behavior — not blanket device restrictions — should be the focus.

Several individual users also described device-specific safety concerns. Stefan, who uses a one-wheeled self‑balancing device, said peak-wattage capacity matters for braking and avoiding crashes and proposed either a separate classification for those devices or different wattage rules for single-wheel models.

Police Chief McCluskey told the council the primary goals are safety and clarity: officers need definitions they can explain and enforce. City staff said the draft is the product of more than a year of work and many revisions, and that the city received a wave of public input after the first reading.

Council member (speaker 17) moved to table the ordinance until further study and to consider it at the June 1 meeting; the motion was seconded and carried unanimously. Mayor Clark and council members said they want to rely on local experts and stakeholders to help revise the draft and to establish a clear timeline for returning the item.

The ordinance would have renamed chapter 76 to ‘‘personal transportation device regulations’’ and repealed chapter 77 (skateboards) on the effective date. Council members stressed the decision to table was intended to give staff time to reconcile device definitions, address bicycle-specific concerns and coordinate with regional partners.

The item is scheduled to return to the council on June 1 for follow-up review and possible further action.