The bill was sought by the Lake Panorama Association but has the potential to affect other state lakes. Shown here is Big Creek Lake north of Des Moines. (Photo by Perry Beeman/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Proposed legislation in the Iowa House would enable community associations that govern areas near public lakes to police their members’ conduct while boating.
House Study Bill 647 would address a problem of the Lake Panorama Association that stems from two court rulings in recent years.
In 2020, the Iowa Supreme Court decided that Lake Panorama is a public lake — despite the lake being encircled entirely by property that is owned by the association or its members — because it’s possible for small boats to access it via the Middle Raccoon River.
The lake was created by damming the river about five decades ago near Panora in west-central Iowa.
In 2023, a district court judge who is presiding over a dispute that involves a different lake association and one of its members ruled that the association couldn’t enforce its boating restrictions on a public lake, which is typically the jurisdiction of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.