Dallas, TX Environmental Rules: Shoreline Management (2026)

Dallas has no ocean coastline, so its shoreline rules govern the city-owned reservoirs at White Rock and Bachman Lakes under Chapter 32, Parks and Water Reservoirs. City Code Sec. 32-82(a) bars mooring or attaching a boat to, or moving, removing, displacing, tampering with, damaging, or destroying any buoy, beacon, light marker, stake, flag, or other navigation aid placed on public waters by the United States or the State of Texas, and separately bars mooring a vessel to a public boat launching ramp except while actually launching or retrieving a boat.

Subsection (b) forbids a vessel operator from coming within 750 feet of an intake structure or any restricted area marked by floating markers and signs without the water utilities director's authorization. Subsection (c) establishes a 'Slow-No Wake' zone within 300 feet of the dam, all jetties, and the entire shoreline of the lake, plus any other area the city marks with buoys, markers, or posted signs, and bans causing a wake inside that zone. Subsection (d) caps unauthorized mooring or operation of a vessel at seven days without written authorization from the director.

Sec. 32-83 delegates enforcement of the whole shoreline article to the department of water utilities, acting through its director, and the Dallas Police Department. The provision traces to Ordinance No. 15071 and was last amended by Ordinance No. 21176. It sits alongside separate Chapter 32 sections on lake camping (Sec. 32-78, capped at seven consecutive days) and fishing restrictions (Sec. 32-75), which together form the city's working shoreline-management scheme for its two urban lakes.