Waterfront Design & Permitting
Four agencies can have a say in what you build on this shoreline. We design to their limits from the first sketch, then file, track and answer for the application.
What you need to know
Building or altering a dock, wharf or mooring on Lake George requires a permit from the Lake George Park Commission before any work begins — the regulation is explicit that no person shall construct, erect, place, alter, modify, enlarge or expand any dock, wharf or mooring without one. Because the lake sits inside the Adirondack Park, APA jurisdiction can also apply, particularly to boathouses and shoreline structures. Work that disturbs the bed of the lake or the bank commonly involves the NYS DEC, and fill in navigable water can bring in the US Army Corps of Engineers. Your town issues its own building permit on top. We handle the whole path.
What this covers
- LGPC dock & wharf permit applications
- Plan and section drawings for submission
- APA jurisdictional review
- DEC Protection of Waters coordination
- Town building permits and zoning
- Setback, footprint and height verification
Design & Permitting
Design is where permits are won or lost
A permit application is not a negotiation. It is a demonstration that what you intend to build already complies.
Which means the work happens at the drawing stage. We establish your frontage, project your setback lines, sound the depth across the proposed footprint, and size the structure so that square footage, pier width, overall width, offshore extension and height all sit inside the limits with margin. A design that is 690 square feet against a 700-square-foot cap invites scrutiny that a 640-square-foot design does not.
Design & Permitting
The rules, in plain numbers
For most residential docks on Lake George:
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Maximum surface area | 700 sq ft, including the walkway |
| Maximum pier width | 8 ft |
| Maximum overall width | 40 ft including all projections |
| Maximum offshore extension | 40 ft beyond mean low water, or 100 ft from mean high water — whichever is more restrictive |
| Maximum height of any structure on the dock | 16 ft above mean high water |
| Setback from each property line | 20 ft, projected into the lake |
| Boathouse footprint (APA) | 1,200 sq ft or less |
| Boathouse height (APA) | 15 ft or less, single storey |
These are the headline figures and they are not the whole regulation. Local zoning, pre-existing non-conforming status and site-specific conditions all modify what you can actually do. Treat this as orientation, not as advice for your parcel.
How it goes
From first call to finished work
No surprises, no vanishing acts between the deposit and the build.
Establish what you can build
Frontage measurement, setback projection, depth soundings and an honest read of your buildable envelope — before anyone falls in love with a design.
Design to the envelope
Drawings that show footprint, square footage, setbacks, height above mean high water and materials, dimensioned the way reviewers want to see them.
File and track
Applications go in with the supporting detail they need the first time. We respond to requests for information and keep you posted on where it sits.
Build to the approval
The permit becomes the build document. What was approved is what gets built, which is what keeps a certificate of compliance straightforward.
Recent work
Design & Permitting on Lake George
Photographs from our own projects around the lake. Click any image to enlarge.
Common questions
Design & Permitting, answered
The questions Lake George owners actually ask us. If yours is not here, ask it directly — we would rather answer than have you guess.
Do I need a permit to repair my existing dock?
It depends on what you are doing. Like-for-like maintenance — replacing decking boards, renewing railings, swapping hardware — is generally maintenance. Anything that alters, modifies, enlarges or expands the structure requires a Lake George Park Commission permit, and the Commission's language on that is broad. Rebuilding cribs, changing the footprint, adding a section or increasing height all cross the line. When in doubt, ask before you start; retroactive applications are a far worse experience than ordinary ones.
How long does Lake George dock permitting take?
Plan on months rather than weeks, and more if multiple agencies are involved or the application needs revision. This is the single most common reason a homeowner does not have a dock for the season they wanted it. If you want to be in the water for next summer, the right time to start is the previous summer or early autumn.
What are the setback rules?
Every dock or wharf must have a minimum 20-foot setback from the adjacent property line extended into the lake — projected on the same axis the property line runs onshore where it meets the lake, or at a right angle to the mean high-water mark, whichever applies. Moorings are held to the same 20-foot standard at full swing and must not sit more than 100 feet offshore. On a narrow lot, the setback is usually what limits your design, not the square footage.
Which agencies will be involved in my project?
Typically some combination of:
- Lake George Park Commission — docks, wharfs, moorings and marinas. Almost always involved.
- Adirondack Park Agency — shoreline structures and boathouses within the Park, subject to jurisdictional determination.
- NYS DEC — Protection of Waters, where the bed of the lake or the bank is disturbed.
- US Army Corps of Engineers — placement of fill in navigable waters.
- Your town — building permit, zoning and, in several lakeside towns, local shoreline overlay rules that are stricter than the state's.
Can you take over a project that has already been refused?
Often, yes. Refusals and requests for revision usually come down to a design that exceeds a limit, drawings that do not show what the reviewer needs, or an application that has not addressed a jurisdiction. All three are fixable. Send us the correspondence and the drawings and we will tell you what we think happened.
Related
Often part of the same project
Lake George, New York
Let's talk about your design & permitting
Tell us the property, the shoreline and what you have in mind. We will tell you what is possible, what it involves and roughly what it costs — before anyone commits to anything.