§ 270:61 — Mooring Permit Required; Limitations

I. Any person erecting, installing, maintaining, or exercising control over a mooring on Lake Winnipesaukee; Lake Winnisquam; Squam Lakes; Newfound Lake; Ossipee Lake; and Lake Sunapee shall obtain a mooring permit from the division as provided in this subdivision.
II. Any person applying for a mooring permit shall:
(a) Demonstrate to the satisfaction of the director that a need for the mooring exists:
(1) Either by furnishing the director with proof of a boat registration for each mooring requested, or for persons owning boats not requiring registration, proof of boat ownership for each mooring requested; or by showing that circumstances exist which require that a mooring be available for intermittent or temporary use; and
(2) By verifying that no other viable and safe alternative exists for securing the boat in question; and
(b) Show to the satisfaction of the director that he has legal access over land to such mooring; and
(c) Show to the satisfaction of the director that such mooring will not be sold or leased except as provided in RSA 270:67; and
(d) Furnish any additional information required by the director to determine that a proposed mooring meets the requirements of this subdivision.
III. Unless a special exception is granted under RSA 270:65, or a mooring field or mooring area has been permitted under RSA 270:67 or 270:68, no more than one mooring shall be permitted adjacent to any shorefront property. This limitation shall apply regardless of the uses or permitted uses, number of owners or others with legal access, or type of ownership of that property, and shall not be construed to exempt any applicant from meeting all of the requirements of this subdivision.
IV. After July 1, 1989, the director or the director's agents shall remove or cause the removal of any mooring, and any boat that may be moored to it, on the lakes cited in paragraph I if it does not have the appropriate decal. Such removal shall be without the right to a prior hearing and at the expense of the owner of the mooring pursuant to RSA 270:66, IV.
V. It shall be illegal for a permittee, without approval of the division, to move or cause to be moved a mooring that has been approved in a particular location by the division.
VI. The department shall not deny a mooring permit to any person, or place any limitations on the type of craft permitted at a mooring, when reasonable need exists, there is no opposition from abutters, there is no evidence that the mooring will interfere with navigation, and the mooring is in compliance with RSA 270:64.
VII. An owner of shorefront property separated from the main water body by a manmade structure shall be granted a permit for a mooring on the main body of water if the need for the mooring is established and if the conditions of RSA 270:64, I are met.

Legislative History

1987, 324:1. 1989, 284:1; 368:4. 1995, 240:3. 1997, 21:1, 2. 2004, 257:22. 2008, 315:2, eff. Aug. 31, 2008.