Uniform wetland permitting nears

Within the 39 Rhode Island cities and towns there are 22 different sets of rules for wetlands development. The individual principles at the municipal level have largely been shaped by decades’ worth of disagreements and compromise between developers, city and town councils, and environmentalists.

But the Ocean State this summer moved a step closer to creating a uniform, statewide standard for wetland permitting. The new state law has won praise from the business community, environmentalists and municipalities, though the challenge of setting the actual standard all communities will follow remains.

“We’re pretty happy about getting this far,” said Gary Ezovski, who chairs the regulations subcommittee at the R.I. Small Business Administration Annual Small Business Summit.

Lawmakers this year passed legislation giving the R.I. Department of Environmental Management blanket authority to implement a single wetland permitting standard for the entire state. Gov. Gina M. Raimondo signed it into law in July.

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Stakeholders must now create the standard, which Ezovski said will be “the real rubber on the road.” He predicts the next phase of the process should take one year.

The push for a more streamlined approach to wetland permitting began about three years ago, as frustration grew over the varying standards’ potentially damaging effects on development projects, Ezovski said.

“[Municipalities] had 22 sets of rules, meaning engineers had to fine tune to a new set of rules each time. And it wasn’t just the rules itself, but also the interpretation of the rules,” Ezovski said. “Planning boards and town councils that have no expertise in these areas were the people who were applying the rules, so it really got stretched.”

Daniel L. Beardsley Jr., executive director of the R.I. League of Cities and Towns, said that while municipalities have had “very legitimate reasons” to be suspicious of state actions that overreach in terms of municipal authorities and local ordinances, this specific effort “was not an onerous reach by the state.”

Municipal leaders and planners were a part of a 2013 legislative task force that worked to develop the new wetland permitting law. They included Vincent Murray, planning director of South Kingstown, who says the ultimate outcome will likely improve the protection of the town’s environmental resources, but also provide a clearer pathway for development proposals to be considered by individual towns.

But, as he noted, “The devil is in the details. … [Municipalities] will need to participate in the rulemaking process.” •

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