08-24-2009, 01:54 PM
quote:Greg, I do understand your issue.
Originally posted by Greg
My points are; Do we have any recourse when regulation imposed to protect us inadvertantly restricts us? Can this process be streamlined when there are obviously so few impacts to the location other than recreational and economic stimulation?
First the regulations are not in place to just deal with impacts, they are there to ensure a uniform method of outlining and determining if impacts are few and insignificant. You say they are few, but how did you make that determination? The regulations make sure that impacts are weighted uniformly across all areas and that if they are few and not significant, that the project can proceed without too many delays or hassles.
Lets say someone wants to improve a footpath to the ocean. Currently it’s of little use (maybe 6 people a day) the area is unused due to terrain. You want to grade a path to that shoreline. Forgetting for the moment anything related to economic, cultural, historical or other issues outside the path and use, one would think the impact is small. However, if that path improvement means an increase from 6 people to 60 each day, you have an impact related to trash and sanitation. You also have a potential 60 people in the water. So you will need to deal with how the increase of people to an area is going to impact the environment. The more you introduce people and their baggage, the more you have to deal with impact issues.
If this was not in place, what would prevent a developer from claiming their 500 room ocean front resort will have no impact on the shoreline because only 2 lbs of trash will be generated per year and only 4 people will venture off the resort to the ocean? The criteria you must follow is the same they must follow and it would expose their impact as being a lot more than a half a bag of trash a year. For you it may reveal the need for a trashcan to mitigate the impact, and it would reveal the need for the resort to have a dedicated cleanup crew to mitigate their impact.
These regs become a burden simply because the criteria really requires someone to think through each aspect of a project and know what are impacts that need to be addresses. Often times, individuals or groups don’t have this expertise so hiring someone who knows the process cost money. Since you are also dealing with multiple agencies, you have to know what each one requires and cover their area in any impact review.