6 Wisconsin Rules That Decide Who Controls the Pier in Front of a Lake Home
A pier can be the best part of lake life.
It also can be one of the easiest things to get wrong.
Wisconsinites with waterfront homes often discover that state and local rules both have a say in what goes in the water.
Here’s what to know before you build, repair or add on to the pier in front of your lake home.
Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Pier rules and dimensions are subject to change, so confirm the current requirements with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
1. Waterfront Owners Only
Only a riparian landowner can place a pier on their property.
Riparian is the legal word for an owner of land that touches a lake or river.
Friends, neighbors or a contractor can help you build a pier, but you answer for the rules and the upkeep once it’s in.
Your pier is private property, even though the waterway around it is public.
2. Public Rights First
Every pier on a navigable lake sits in water that the state Constitution holds in trust for the public.
Those public rights cover boating, fishing, swimming and the scenery from the water.
When your riparian rights collide with them, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that the public’s rights are primary and yours are secondary.
The DNR protects those public rights through permits for projects in the water.
It has jurisdiction over pier placement below the ordinary high water mark, the line on the shore where the water leaves a distinct mark.
3. Your Riparian Zone
A pier and any boat moored at it have to stay inside your exclusive riparian zone.
That zone is the stretch of water next to your shoreline where you alone have the right to place structures.
State statutes don’t prescribe one method for drawing it, so you and your neighbors have flexibility.
If a neighbor’s pier sits too close to your zone, the DNR recommends working it out with that neighbor.
Unless a pier harms public rights, the department stays out of the argument.
A judge decides.
How You Draw a Riparian Zone
A riparian zone for your pier usually follows one of two methods in the DNR’s Pier Planner, its pier standards guide.
On a straight shoreline, you extend your lot lines out into the water.
On a curved or irregular shoreline, you connect the points where the lot lines meet the shore, then bisect the angles those lines form.
4. April 2012 Cutoff
A pier’s age decides whether it needs a DNR permit.
If your pier went in before April 17, 2012, it needs no DNR permit.
That legacy pier can keep the same number of boat slips it had.
A newer pier skips the permit only if it meets the Pier Planner standards and exemption checklist.
If yours misses them, you apply for an individual permit through the DNR’s online ePermitting system.
5. Local Pierhead Lines
A municipality that sets a pierhead line caps how long your pier can be.
Your pier can’t extend past that line, no matter how far state law would let it go.
The municipality’s line wins.
Local ordinances can also restrict how many structures you place on your property, either directly or through side setbacks.
Psst! How much do you know about lakefront rules? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Lakefront Rules Pop Quiz
Answer these questions on piers, rafts, and shorelines. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Over-water boathouses built before which year are allowed to remain in Wisconsin, even though the state bars new ones?
6. Easements and Back Lots
You can't allow a new pier on an easement, according to the DNR.
State law allows limited exceptions to that rule under section 30.131.
You can rent space on your pier to someone else.
If you live in a condominium behind the waterfront parcel, you can't use the double-density slip formula for a new pier.
That formula gives four slips for the first 50 feet of shoreline instead of two.
The condominium has to sit on the parcel that touches the water.
Back lots don't qualify.
Slip Counts by Frontage
Wisconsin law gives a new pier on a non-commercial property two boat slips for the first 50 feet of shoreline you own.
Each additional full 50 feet adds one more.
A boat in a lift counts as a slip, too.
Based on the DNR's examples, 125 feet of shoreline allows three slips, and 225 feet allows five.
You can also place up to two personal watercraft for the first 50 feet, plus one for each additional full 50 feet.
Partial 50-foot stretches don't count.
Boat Lifts and Winter
A boat lift or hoist can stay in the water at your pier all year.
Boat shelters work differently.
A seasonal boat shelter has to come down between December 1 and April 1 if you want to skip a permit.
That includes the roof, canopy and supports.
Permanent boat shelters need a DNR permit.
Low Water Years
Low water doesn't automatically let you extend a pier.
What you can do depends on its permit status.
If your pier meets the Pier Planner standards, you can extend it without contacting the DNR, as long as the longer pier still meets them.
If a DNR permit covers your pier, the permit conditions set its size and layout.
If your pier has no state permit and misses the standards, you can repair and maintain it.
You can't enlarge or replace it.
Extending it counts as an enlargement that needs an individual permit.
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