Boat houses
 

Are they allowing new boat houses to be built on the lake? There is a sign in front of Docks Unlimited that says they are allowing new boathouses.

I didn't know there was a restriction, but then I don't usually follow such issues; but when a gazillionaire builds a new lakeside chateau on once empty ground it seems a boathouse and docks get built.

Some town zoning allows, some does not. Boathouses that extend into the lake, usually, no. Those that are dug in , maybe.

That is my understanding. You can only build a boathouse that is dug in and does not extend beyond the shoreline.

If you build one that, for example, has a 30 foot bay for the boat they will then call your shoreline that point 30 feet into your land. In other words, if you wish to construct a building on the same land, using the 50 foot required setback, it will have to be 80 feet from your natural shoreline because they start measuring from where the boat bay ends.

You are exactly right. And even though that was in the law for a while, my permitter told me that we were one of the first that they enforced it. Also no boathouse can be more than 900 square feet.

That was always my understanding too. The street sign at Docks Unlimited read like they were implying the rules have changed.

Law changes in July 2025 and rule changes in September 2025 make boathouses over public water possible again.

Can you briefly explain the changes?

July 2025 Changes
 

I found this change:

The Department of Environmental Services (Department) is proposing to readopt with amendment
various Env-Wt 500 rules. The existing rules establish specific approval and design criteria and
additional application requirements that apply to many specific types of projects such as aquatic
weed management, various types of shoreline structures, bank stabilization, forestry, ponds, and
residential development.
The proposed rules specifically contain changes for the rules that apply to boathouses. The current
rules only allow new boathouses to be constructed over dug-in basins. The proposed rule
amendments would allow the construction of boathouses over public waters with a permit if
eligible, so long as the boathouse does not violate RSA 482-A:26 for dwellings over public waters.
The construction of a new dug-in basin would no longer be allowed in the proposed rule. Pursuant
to the public purpose statement in RSA 482-A:1, the Department has determined that it is better
environmental policy to allow a boathouse over public waters, rather than digging a basin into the
shoreline, if the property has the required frontage to allow for a boathouse. Existing dug-in basins
and boathouses could still be maintained, repaired, and replaced in-kind. Existing boathouses over
public waters could be modified so long as RSA 482-A:26 is not violated.

could be modified? What, tear them down and move them out into the lake? Right.

I believe that the last sentence addresses the modification of existing boathouses that are over the "public waters," and not boathouses that were built over a dug-in basin. In other words, you wouldn't have to move them out into the lake, because that's where they already are.

Ah, ok, thank you.

Basically they are reverting the law, back to the way it was. In my estimation the law that allow the shoreline to be modified was a misguided attempt to make the idea of boathouse to expensive of a proposition. It certainly did not stop those that really wanted one.

While I understand the desire to have one because lets face it, it make things simple. Overall I think the cost to build and maintain a boat house is ridiculous.

If you can afford a MacMansion, you can afford a boat house!

There's a lot going on right now and I have not had the time to put together any outreach material on this. When RSA 482-A:26 was adopted in its original form in 1969 it effectively prohibited boathouses over the bed of any natural lake or pond greater than 10 acres in size or artificial impoundment where the state owned the bed or flowage rights. I can say this wasn't about adding cost to anyone, it was about eliminating all structures over public waters that had any kind of residential use. As evidence of intent, the original language specifically prohibited all repair and reconstruction of such structures. Eventually someone asked if they could excavate a basin in their own land and build over that. Since the law didn't prohibit it, it was allowed. The Shoreland Protection Act did not yet exist. Over time RSA 482-A:26 has been changed in a variety of ways, for a variety of reasons. In its current version it would appear to no longer prohibit boathouses over public waters. Given the option now of permitting boathouses over the water instead of digging up the shoreline, everyone seems to agree that not digging up the shoreline would be less environmentally impacting. So, we've changed our rules and that's the direction we're going in. (RSA 482-A:26 does still prohibit conversion to, or use of, these new structures to a residence.) Once we have some outreach materials ready, I'll post a link to them.

It never did make sense to me how digging into the shoreline could be considered as having less environmental compact.

Zoning
 

My recollection from aropund 1960 is that Gilford passed zoning regulatins around that time prohibiting boathouses. It wasn't imprtant to me then, so it may have been the new law. Neverthe less, ikf it was a zoning ordinance, that might still be in effect.

In Tuftonboro, there is an over-the-water boathouse on Chase Island which is currently under repair, and a new dug-in boathouse on Chase Point currently under construction. With the proposed rule changes, it might be one of the last dug-ins on the lake, I guess.

Benefits Could Be Large Ones...
 

One's home would be further distanced from their Dock Spiders.

;)

:laugh::laugh: But probably not. Still the same because either way your house has to be 50 feet from the shoreline

We have a dug in slip. Gilford measures our shoreline across the slip, not on its perimeter. However, when we built a bunkhouse in 2024, the required 50' setback was from the innnermost end of the slip. Essentially, the concern is runoff into the lake, so we also installed silt fence.

I'm not sure what that means but when we built ours around 2009 the house had to be 50 feet from the "new" high water mark, not the original waterline before we dug in.

Exactly. In this case, there is a diffrence in which line is being looked at. Waterline for setback, shoireline which is usually described in your deed. When you dig in, the deed (shoireline) remains the same for describing your lot. The weaterline is the nearest water to your structure for determining proper setback. Suppose your dug in slip is 30 x 75. In some eyes, you could say you have 22501 sf less land and your lot should be described as smaller. In another view, one could say you have 180' more shioreline, measuring the slip. Neither of these changes actually occur on the tax rolls. We went through this with the tax assessor some years ago when Gilford first started using aerial information for mapping and said we had 600' of shireline. Easy fix with the assessor so our shoreline was as described in the deed, a line from point a to b.

Gotcha'. That has happened to us over the years even without the boathouse. Some assessors measured around every little corner of land and some measured point a to point b. Now we are at point a to b.