New shoreline applications now available including registration of existing buoys

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) today released a series of updated permit applications for shorezone projects and activities under the recently-adopted Shoreline Plan that is taking effect this year.

Shorezone applications now available online at http://www.trpa.org/permitting/permit-applications/ include:

- Express Check applications for expedited TRPA review of in-kind shorezone structure reconstructions

- Declarations for exempt and qualified exempt activities that do not require a TRPA permit but must be declared, including repair and maintenance of existing shorezone structures
- A general shorezone application for concessions, pier expansions and modifications, boat ramps, shoreline protective structures, floating platforms, beach raking, and lakebed dredging and filling activities
-An information packet on the application process for new piers

Adopted by TRPA’s Governing Board in October 2018, the Shoreline Plan lifts a longstanding moratorium on new shorezone structures including private piers and buoys at Lake Tahoe. The plan authorizes up to 12 private piers permitted every two years with a cap at 128 new private piers.

The new pier information packet provides more details about applying for a new pier. TRPA will accept applications for new piers between June 1 and June 30, 2019 and will select up to 12 new pier applications by July 17, 2019 to move forward through the permitting process. Private piers serving multiple parcels will be scored for consideration based on criteria in the TRPA Code of Ordinances, while private piers serving only one parcel will be selected for consideration through a new lottery system.

The Shoreline Plan also requires existing buoys to be registered with TRPA starting March 1, 2019. TRPA is creating a portal on the website https://LakeTahoeInfo.org where people will be able to register buoys online and pay annual buoy registration fees and scenic impact fees.

Property owners will be able to register existing buoys starting this March if they have a buoy permit from Nevada Division of State Lands, California State Lands Commission, or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; if they applied for a buoy permit from TRPA between 2008 and 2010; or if they can provide proof that a buoy was in place prior to 1972.

More information on registering existing buoys will be released in coming weeks as the new registration system is put in place. Applications for new buoys at Tahoe will not be accepted by TRPA until March 1, 2020.