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A 400' Boardwalk Through the Woods to Access an Inaccessible
—Riparian Access is a Right—
Our client in Southern Maryland had their pier built on their waterfront shoreline, accessing navigable water through about 100' of phragmites covered wetlands. The pier is long and beautiful, built elevated above the wetlands, and built very well. There was just one problem: there was no reasonable way to get onto the pier without a ladder and some mucking boots.
The pier just stopped amidst non-tidal wetlands, about 20' from the dry walkable upland near by. The pier is also about 4' off the ground.
Looking into the permitting applied for with Anne Arundel County and Maryland Department of the Environment, it appears this was how the pier was designed and permitted by the pier contractors.
The 400' of woods that stretches between this pier and the property's grassy back yard had dirt access path that also was often muddy due to the lowland nature of this waterfront property.The property owner wanted to construct at 3' wide boardwalk through the woods, connecting their yard to their pier.
Our client was told by prior contractors that permitting construction of a boardwalk here would be impossible in this jurisdiction and they offered to have the work performed without permits.
Pier stops 4 feet above grade in the middle of wetlands, 20 feet from dry uplands
We thought this was a tragedy of missed opportunity. When we heard about this client having spent all this money not only on the construction of the pier itself, but also on the permitting and required land and environmental surveys, not to mention how long it took for the whole process to play out, all so that they'd have a pier that wasn't accessible, these clients were treated unfairly.
Furthermore, for a licensed contractor to invite them to build without permits — especially a boardwalk of the magnitude desired by this homeowner, in this critical area — is not only against the law but it would leave this homeowner exposed to legal liabilities not only with the county, but with the state, as the state regulates private tidal and non-tidal wetland activities and protections.
Read our blog post on Permits: "To Permit, or Not to Permit" for further discussion on the virtues and drawbacks of permitting, the potentially devastating consequences of embarking on a project without them, and the lack of protections that still exist even if you do permit.
At the end of the day, building riparian water access is a right for waterfront property owners in Maryland and permitting is the only way to make sure you stay on the right side of state and local laws.
The boardwalk Plan
Permitting a riparian water access project like this is possible, but you'd be amazed at how long it can take. It takes even longer if you are working with a builder who is not well versed in the process and proactive enough to keep things moving every-step of the way through the bureaucratic processes.
Unfortunately in this case, because the now-existing pier stops within the Maryland regulated private wetlands area, permitting for anything new to attach to that pier also falls within the Maryland regulated private wetlands area. Thus, this proposed boardwalk work has a portion within these regulate wetlands and therefore not only requires county permitting again, but also requires a state building permit with Maryland Department of Environment.
Having to re-permit with the state required the homeowner pay thousands to redo portions of the environmental delineations and site surveys of the area near the pier's end and the homeowner had to pay the $700 permitting fee to MDE again. On top of all of that, the time it takes (months) for the state to reprocess the permitting applications, perform the required site inspections (weather permitting) and then process the state level approval, before we begin the county building permit process. All of these costs and delays would have been covered the first time they went through it for the pier's construction, had the pier construction permits either included the boardwalk, or just included extending the pier to the end of the regulated wetlands area.
Pier stops mid-private-non-tidal wetlands, regulated by the Maryland Department of the Environment
For projects big and small, homeowners should seek a knowledgeable general contracting company from the start: a company who will manage subcontractors, generate or review construction drawings, and build to the plan to make sure that your needs and interests, in any project, are carried through from start to finish.