Personal Watercraft Coalition v. Marin County Board of Supervisors

The County of Marin (County) adopted an ordinance banning the use of personal watercraft on or within its territorial waters. The trial court determined that the ordinance was unconstitutionally vague on its face in terms of its territorial application. We hold that the ordinance does not suffer from that constitutional infirmity. We also reject a number of other constitutional and statutory challenges to the validity of the ordinance.

Background

In October of 1999 the Board of Supervisors for the County adopted Ordinance No. 3302, which added nine sections to the county code as chapter 11.36 (the Ordinance), entitled “Watercraft Regulation.” The pertinent provisions may be summarized as follows:

Ordinance section 11.36.010 sets out a number of legislative findings and declares that “the purpose of this ordinance is to reduce existing conflicts and limit potential conflicts between uses of the shoreline waters and estuaries of Marin County, eliminate adverse impacts to the diverse and unusual species found in the shoreline waters and estuaries of Marin County, promote overall public safety, and decrease hydrocarbon pollution that is disproportionately caused by…