Shoreline rules on Lake Lanier: clearing, paths and riprap

Where your land stops

Most of the Corps boundary runs in straight lines between monuments and angle irons, not along a contour. Painted witness trees only mean the line is close. The Corps doesn't mark private lines, and the plan recommends a private survey before any construction near public land (SMP §16). It also urges counties to enforce a 10-foot setback from the line so that building materials and fill stay off federal land (§15.8.9). Homes built partly over the line before January 1, 2000 were dealt with by a 2000 act of Congress; walkways to the lake and gazebos weren't covered (§17).

Shoreline zones

Shoreline miles at 1,071 ft, from the 2004 SMP §13. Check your zone on the Corps' shoreline map before you buy.

Clearing, mowing and trees

• Underbrushing needs a permit and an on-site plan with your ranger. Only understory stems 2 in across or less, limbs pruned to head height, inside a 10-ft corridor each side of the path, for up to five years (SMP §20).
• No clearing for views or lawns, and no raking away forest litter.
• Mowing is allowed only on grass areas already on your permit; let them grow back to woods and that part isn't renewed. A 6-ft path may be mowed (§15.8.6).
• Hazardous trees can come down, but only after a Specified Act Permit (§15.8.7).
• No gardens, exotic plants, fertilizer or weed killer; native plants by permit (§15.8.3–15.8.4).
• No burning on Corps land at any lake level; a county burn permit doesn't count (§15.8.5).

Paths, steps and bridges

A path to your dock follows the slope in a meandering line, dug with hand tools and surfaced with wood chips or leaf litter. Steps are allowed where the slope needs them, by permit: at least 8 in wide by 6 in high material, at ground level, no landscape timbers, no arsenic-treated wood and no patios (SMP §15.3.11). Fixed steps can run at most 20 ft and reach no more than 10 ft lakeward from the top of the bank, and a bank that needs more is treated as unsafe for a permit (§15.2). Footbridges are a last resort and no wider than 4 ft. Approach walkway rules are in the dock rules guide.

Erosion and riprap

Boat wakes and wind waves undercut banks all over the lake. Riprap (heavy stone over fabric) is the Corps' preferred fix; seawalls and gabion baskets are considered only when riprap won't work, and applications go to the Lanier office under federal Section 10 and 404 authority (SMP §14.3). The ranger may require riprap with a new permit where steps are needed or a site is already eroding (§15.2). For scale: in 2016 the Lake Lanier Association set out to line about 3,150 ft of island shoreline with roughly 6,500 tons of stone, at a cost of about $275,000 (LLA).

What happens if you get it wrong

Anything left on public land for more than 24 hours without a permit is an encroachment and can be removed at your cost (SMP §17). Violations can bring a federal citation, an order to restore the land, and loss of the dock permit; severe damage can freeze new permits in that area for at least five years (§15.8.11). With new dock permits closed, that is a lot to risk for a view. Read more on how dock permits work.

Common questions