CARNELIAN BAY – Shoreline property owners who have been waiting more than 20 years for regulators' permission to build a pier on Lake Tahoe aren't exactly buoyed by a recent decision to lift the boating structures ban.

That's because the new Tahoe Regional Planning Agency rules adopted last week come weighted with enough restrictions to sink a pier plan before the first piling is driven.

The permit process for piers, all designed to protect the lake's beauty, can take years longer than that for building a lakefront home, according to consultants for lakefront owners who had property in the few areas where piers have been allowed.

The fees paid to consultants and attorneys who many use to navigate the regulatory maze can rival the cost of building the pier.

To win a pier permit, lakefront owners have had to re-roof a neighbor's home in earth-tone colors, plant trees to hide the home from sightseers and even change the exterior paneling on the house to better blend with the forest and sapphire lake.

"When you start to look at what the new TRPA rules really mean, you'll see that almost no one will be enticed to build a pier," said Jan Brisco, executive director of the Tahoe Lakefront Property Owners Association.

Brisco said she would be surprised if the new annual quota of five piers a year will be reached.

"I'm telling you, this is not for the faint of heart," Brisco said.

Allen Biaggi, a Nevada representative on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency governing board, conceded that applicants for pier permits likely would be those "with a tremendous amount of tenacity and a good deal of money."

It takes tens of thousands of dollars in consultants fees just to determine whether you can build a pier, Brisco said. The property owner then pays TRPA $100,000 – which pays for improvements at public beaches – for the pier building permit and posts a $10,000 bond for five years as an assurance that the required environmental extras are met.

Add the costs of designing and building a pier, and the total tally can easily exceed $250,000.

A pier on Tahoe is worth as much as 10 percent to 25 percent of the land value, which along the shore runs from $1.5 million to $35 million, according to Hugh McBride, a real estate appraiser in Carnelian Bay who has evaluated lakefront properties for 32 years.

Even the 700-plus lakefront owners fortunate to have a pier become mired in regulations when they want to extend or repair the structure.

Judy Wright, 72, said she and her late husband, Edwin, sank $70,000 in consultant fees trying to win permission for a 30-foot extension of their pier on the north shore's Carnelian Bay without success. The larger of their six boats needed to be launched in deeper waters beyond the pier.

"My husband said he was going to beat the system. Well, cancer beat him first," Wright said.

After he died last year, Wright said she withdrew their permit application.

"I threw in the towel. I am too old to be taking on government agencies," she said.

The complex rules on Tahoe piers are rooted in a 40-year-old compact between California and Nevada to rein in development of vacation homes, ski resorts and hotel-casinos around the lake, which is bisected by the state line. Congress ratified the deal, declaring the lake "a national treasure."

Yet an obstacle course of privately built piers and fences have kept the beach-loving public from enjoying its full splendor. California allows sunbathers, kayakers and others to park themselves on the shores fronting homes on its side of the lake. But Nevada has no such "public trust easement."

The pier rules and the revisions approved last week are designed to balance the multitude of interests, maintaining the property owners' development rights while minimizing the clutter and glare of shoreline development for sightseers.

Those seeking to build piers or boat slips must consult about a dozen different maps to make sure, among other things, the structure does not degrade fish habitat, spoil the scenery or encroach on drinking water intakes.

The process becomes arduous if the owner is looking to build a pier for exclusive use. The TRPA rules favor piers owned by multiple homes in the neighborhood to limit the number of structures jutting out from the shore.

Some owners have no quarrel with the many environmental restrictions, seeing them as the price to be paid to keep Tahoe beautiful.

Lynn and Gary Crosswhite of Reno said they didn't challenge any of the TRPA requirements and had their permit for widening their pier approved unanimously by the agency's governing board within three months.

Call The Bee's Chris Bowman, (916) 321-1069.