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Builders Make Three Wishes to Improve Wetlands Regulation
A Wetlands Wish List of reforms that would improve the wetlands permitting process for home builders and home buyers was released by NAHB last week to coincide with the 15th anniversary of American Wetlands Month, which has focused this year on the economic benefits of protecting wetlands.
“As stewards of much of the nation’s developable land, home builders have taken a lead role in protecting wetlands,” said NAHB President Dave Wilson. “It is important that federal legislative and regulatory bodies continue to work with landowners to protect wetlands sensibly and cost-effectively.”
Following are the three proposals on NAHB’s wetlands list:
1. Do not give ditches, curbs or gutters the same level of protection as wetlands.
Congress needs to provide clear, scientific guidance on what constitutes a wetland. A string of court decisions and inconsistent enforcement by federal agencies have made the definition so unclear and overly broad that some landowners have even been required to obtain a federal permit for impacting a drainage ditch that they created on their own land.
“It does not make sense to lump a ditch, a curb or a gutter into the same regulatory category as the Everglades,” said Wilson. “The wetlands program’s scarce resources should be devoted to protecting the nation’s true wetlands.”
Federal wetlands regulation should be limited to the geographic scope intended by Congress when it included the word “navigable” in the Clean Water Act, he said.
2. Individual wetlands permits should be issued in 120 days or less.
Builders applying for an individual permit to cover a specific project find that it can take years to get their application approved, which increases their costs. “Four months is a reasonable amount of time to review and issue a wetlands permit,” said Wilson. “Longer delays can start to eat away at housing affordability.”
3. Further streamline the Nationwide Permit program.
Nationwide Permits, or general permits, provide umbrella coverage for a large number of wetlands activities and are an efficient, cost-effective alternative to individual permits for many builders. Over the last couple of years, however, additional paperwork and a lengthened permit review period have made the program less useful. NAHB urges the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the program, to remove these cumbersome requirements.
“Home builders are every bit as committed to protecting wetlands as they are to providing affordable housing,” said Wilson. “We want to cooperate with federal agencies and Congress to do both.”
For more information, e-mail Marie Yarroll at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8132.
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