DES permits for a deck???

[Heaven]

Originally Posted by jazzman

Does anyone know how hard (is it even possible?), to get a DES permit to extend a deck into the 50 foot buffer?

My house currently has a 4 foot deep deck across the front which is next to useless because it's only wide enough to walk on. The deck is pretty close to the 50 foot mark. It would be 10x more useful if it was 8 feet deep. Is this sort of permitting DIY, or do I need to hire a professional and turn this into a very expensive project.

FWIW, it's a wooden deck about 2 feet off the ground with 1/4" spacing between deck boards, so runoff isn't a huge issue and the yard facing the lake is dead flat with a natural berm to the lake formed by 10,000 years of ice pushing rocks into the shoreline

I believe they would rather see you extend the deck, which is still permeable, than build a nonpermeable patio, perhaps

https://www.des.nh.gov/protected-shoreland-faq#faq30916
Projects involving changes in the dimension of an attached deck require a shoreland impact permit or permit by notification. New decks may be added to nonconforming primary structures and existing decks may be expanded, provided they extend no more than 12 feet towards the reference line from the surface of the primary structure to which they are attached.