For the purpose of this subchapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
BEACHED or BEACHING. Placing or securing a watercraft on or adjacent to the shore of a separate frontage on a lake.
BOAT LIFT, BOAT CRADLE, SHORE STATION, or BOAT STORAGE DEVICE. A device for the purpose of mooring, anchoring, or holding a watercraft in, on, or above the water.
DOCK or PIER. A structure, platform, or fixture extending from the shore or bottomlands into a lake.
DOCKED or DOCKING. The anchoring, tethering, or mooring of a watercraft directly to a pier, structure, platform, pole, anchor, pier, or dock adjacent to a separate frontage; and also means the placement of a watercraft in an off-shore boat cradle or shore station, or the regular or overnight beaching of a watercraft or anchoring or tethering to the bottomlands of a lake adjacent to a separate frontage.
ICE CONTROL. An aerator, bubbler, circulation pump, or any other device, activity, or equipment used within a lake that affects the water’s surface so as to prevent the normal formation of surface ice.
LAKE. A navigable body of water situated partially or wholly in the township borders. This subchapter is intended to include all properties within the township. The subchapter shall not mean nor include lakes to which other ordinance regulations apply so as to prohibit certain boats with engines or motors.
MOORING. A space for a single watercraft at or adjacent to a dock in an offshore boat cradle or shore station, anchoring or beaching location.
ORDINARY HIGH WATER MARK or SHORELINE.
(1) The line between upland and bottomland which persists through successive changes in water levels, below which the presence and action of the water is so common or recurrent that the character of the land is marked distinctly from the upland and is apparent in the soil itself, the configuration of the surface of the soil, and the vegetation.
(2) Where the water levels vary for purposes of water level management, the ordinary high water mark shall be the higher of the levels generally present.
PERMANENT PIER (DOCK). A structure so installed on the lake bottomland and shoreline of such material and design that it is intended to withstand all weather conditions year-round and not to be removed, in any part or completely, on a seasonal basis usually for winter damage prevention.
PERSON. A human being, partnership, corporation, association, including a condominium association, and any other entity to which the law provides or imposes rights or responsibilities.
PERSONAL WATERCRAFT. A vessel that meets all of the following requirements:
(1) Uses a motor-driven propeller or an internal combustion engine powering a water jet pump as its primary source of propulsion;
(2) Is designed without an open load carrying area that would retain water; and
(3) Is designed to be operated by one or more persons positioned on, rather than within, the confines of the hull.
SEPARATE FRONTAGE. That portion of a lot or parcel of land lawfully existing on documentation recorded with the Cass County Register of Deeds which abuts or intersects with the ordinary high water mark of a lake, whether such lot or parcel is owned by one or more persons, is commonly owned by several persons or combinations of persons, or occupied by a multiple-unit residential development. In no event shall such parcel of land abut a human-made canal or channel, and no canal or channel shall be excavated for the purpose of increasing the water frontage required by this regulation.
WATERCRAFT. Every kind of boat, vessel, tug, tender, however propelled, and any boat, pontoon boat, hydrofoil, hovercraft, jet ski, personal watercraft, jet boat, or similar vessel having a propulsion system of more than six horsepower; marine construction or maintenance equipment, barge, research vessel, weed harvester or dredge, or sailboat over 12 feet in length, but does not include canoes, kayaks, paddle boats, rowboats (without an engine), or other human-powered craft or sailboards.
(Ord. 97-01, passed 8-22-2015)