Boat house construction ...
 

Does anyone know where I can find the minimum waterfront footage required for one to build a boat house on Lake Winnipesaukee?

I am not planning on building one, but I have a neighbor who got permission and built one when he had well over 325' of shoreline. He is now sub-dividing the land and the boat house will sit on about 150' of shoreline.

There are differing current water frontage requirements for a residence depending on what town one is in around the lake, and I am not sure if a boathouse has it's own dedicated footage requirements in order to construct one.

My guess is that a boathouse is considered an outbuilding, so if one has the current or grandfathered zoning for a house then they may be able to construct a boathouse as long as the setbacks are observed.

Maybe a land use expert has the answer.

I don't think you can build a new boathouse that extends into the lake anymore. You can only rebuild an existing one. A new boathouse has to be dug in and constructed totally behind the shoreline.

Also, when I wanted to do some construction to an existing structure on my land the state considered the 50 foot distance to the shoreline to be measured from where the boat slip ended inside the boathouse which is considerably farther inland than the actual natural shoreline.

As far as I know the DES people are still working from home and not answering the phone. However, if you email them or leave a telephone message they do return calls. They are generally pretty helpful with information about regulations.