## Facts

- A Michigan township board adopted an ordinance for Pleasant Lake prohibiting “powerboat racing and water skiing” each day from 4:00 p.m. until 10:00 a.m., enforceable by fine or short jail time.
- The state had enacted boating and waterskiing regulations of general applicability, including limits tied to sunset and sunrise.
- Philip Miller owned lakeshore property on Pleasant Lake and used the lake for powerboating and waterskiing.
- Miller alleged that his work schedule generally prevented him from reaching the lake until after 5:00 p.m., so the ordinance effectively barred him from waterskiing during available daylight hours.
- Miller sought declaratory relief to invalidate the ordinance as unconstitutional and preempted by state boating legislation; the trial court upheld the ordinance and dismissed the complaint.

## Issues

1. Whether statewide boating and waterskiing legislation preempted or conflicted with a township ordinance imposing stricter hours for waterskiing and powerboat racing on a particular inland lake.
2. Whether the legislature’s grant of township authority to enact ordinances for public peace, health, safety, welfare, and convenience authorized the township to regulate waterskiing hours on Pleasant Lake.
3. Whether the ordinance’s time restriction was an unreasonable or unconstitutional exercise of the police power as applied to lake users and riparian owners.

## Decision

- The Michigan Supreme Court affirmed the judgment upholding the ordinance.
- The Court held the ordinance was within the township’s legislatively delegated police power to protect health and safety.
- The Court held the ordinance was not preempted by state boating statutes because the state scheme did not show an intent to occupy the entire field of time-and-manner regulation on specific inland lakes.
- The Court upheld the restriction as a reasonable safety-based regulation targeted at high-speed, towing activities during defined hours.

## Legal Principles

- A local ordinance is invalid if it directly conflicts with state law or if the legislature has expressly or impliedly occupied the regulatory field.
- Statewide regulation may set baseline standards while permitting supplementary local regulation tailored to local conditions, absent a clear legislative intent to exclude local action.
- A township may enact reasonable time-and-manner limits on recreational boating activities as a health-and-safety measure when authorized by statute.
- Individual inconvenience or reduced recreational opportunity does not, by itself, render a safety regulation arbitrary or unconstitutional if the regulatory line drawn has a rational basis.

## Conclusion

The Michigan Supreme Court upheld Pleasant Lake’s ordinance restricting waterskiing and powerboat racing to specified daytime hours, concluding that the township acted within delegated police power, the ordinance reasonably advanced local safety and welfare concerns, and state boating legislation did not preempt stricter local time restrictions absent clear legislative intent to exclude them.


Miller v. Fabius Twp. Bd., 366 Mich. 250, 114 N.W.2d 205 (Mich. 1962)