Every developer in New Hampshire knows that over the years, the Department of Environmental Services has had difficulty abiding by the statutory clock that requires permits to be processed in a timely fashion. A scathing audit released last fall put the Legislature on notice that the department chronically missed deadlines when processing applications. The development industry cannot function when regulation ties up projects indefinitely.
In response, DES Commissioner Tom Burack proposed a fee increase, 2 1/2 times greater than the fees at the time, for the Alteration of Terrain program. The commissioner promised to use the additional revenue to hire two new senior engineers to lower the workload.
While many thought this excessive, the HBRANH Legislative Committee backed the fee hike so long as the department actually hired the engineers and reduced the backlog. In fact, it is doubtful that the legislation would have passed had it been opposed. Instead, discussions between DES officials and Legislative Committee members appeared promising. The fee hike was small pay if the backlog could be reduced.
Nearly a year later, the backlog has been reduced but not due to any new hires or increased efficiency. The market collapse has obviously lowered the demand for new permits and a new policy at the department has further shortened the line, but in the most nefarious of ways. One and done, as it is known, means that any application which does not fully satisfy the reviewer after one chance at revisions is promptly denied, causing the applicant to file a new application, pay new fees (which would amount to five times what they were last year) and restart the clock.
This is not the bill of goods we were sold and the industry has every reason to be outraged as a result. The department is acting in bad faith. The solution is to streamline programs, not to toss applications out of line and collect more fees. Commissioner, we can do better than that.
