A new Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) group will look for ways to expedite the agency’s permit-approval process for many projects, according to an administrative order issued by DEP Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson.

The Permit Efficiency Task Force has four months to make operational, regulatory and policy recommendations for increasing the efficiency of the permitting process, and will also suggest incentives for "smart growth" projects that control carbon emissions, spur inner-city growth and/or provide affordable housing.

"This task force was formed to provide better service for permits and to address what the permitting program should look like in the future," DEP spokesperson Elaine Makatura told the South Bergenite. The document also emphasizes the need to explore ways to make DEP operations more hi-tech, to eliminate redundancies in the department’s bureaucracy and to delegate more to local governments and third parties for permit approvals and compliance verification.

The environment

But the task force’s mandate has already drawn the suspicion of some environmental activists and policy experts.

"Right now the DEP approves more than 98 percent of all permits. Virtually no permits are denied," said Bill Wolfe, director of New Jersey’s Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). "What this is really all about is that the business community wants to further weaken the protection for air, water and land that DEP established."

Though the group’s membership will draw heavily from the development and construction communities, the order does not specifically mention business interests in the rationale for its creation. Instead it refers to DEP’s "diverse constituencies" with "competing interests and goals that can create conflicts as the agency strives for environmental and public health protection while also acknowledging other priorities."

That language raises a red flag with Wolfe, who spent 13 years as a DEP official.

"That contradicts DEP's mission," said Wolfe. "DEP's mission is to protect public health and the environment. It is not to be the negotiator between the business community and the environmental community."

Affordable housing

Another source of controversy in the plan is its call for "greater priority" and "regulatory flexibility" for projects in line with the state’s development goals, including urban renewal and affordable housing. Critics worry that the language could mean less protection for the state’s poorest residents.

"One of the concerns we have is that you will get two sets of environmental protections in New Jersey. One for most of us, and then a lesser protection for those people who live in affordable housing," said Jeffrey Tittel of the Sierra Club. "It could mean a two class system for the environment, where urban areas and people of less means get less protection than wealthier people."

DEP officials deny that the task force has any set policy program. "There is nothing that is pre-determined as far as results," said Makatura. "That would defeat its very purpose. This task force will open the discussions about how to incentivize the permit process for New Jersey's sustainability."

Rutherford Mayor John Hipp, who is also an environmental attorney, supports the creation of the task force to look into the permitting process, but shares concerns about what the group may ultimately recommend.

"The concerns I had about the DCA recommendations [earlier this month], and what I see coming from DEP, is that they are developer-friendly," said Hipp. "While I appreciate the desire to streamline the permitting process, relaxing the standards is not a way to streamline, and providing ad-hoc flexibility on certain projects is dangerous."

The Housing Crisis

The Commissioner’s order comes on the heels of a similar report released by the Housing Policy Task Force earlier this month. That body, created by the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) last fall to address New Jersey’s growing housing needs, called on the state to loosen environmental protections and overrule local zoning decisions when they conflicted with state planning goals.

At the time of its release, the report drew the ire of DEP Commissioner Jackson, who in comments to the media expressed her concern that DCA was making environmental policy recommendations without a DEP representative at the table.

Some see the subsequent creation of the Permit Efficiency Task Force as an about-face.

"The DEP Commissioner took an open, hostile stand against a fellow-cabinet member [DCA head Joseph Doria]. That is highly unusual. I thought she was going to take on Doria and it'd be a battle royale," said Wolfe.

A slowing economy and a troubled housing sector have added to the pressure on Trenton to overhaul its building regulations.

"Any time there is a downturn in the housing market, the builders and the polluters use that as an excuse to try to weaken DEP regulations," said Tittel. "Commissioner Jackson put out this task force in response to these attacks. I understand why she did it, but I think she's wrong. It only empowers the enemies of the environment to go further."

Another EnCap?

Any attempt to restructure the rules governing statewide development will have to do so under the shadow of the EnCap debacle, which saw the derailment of plans to develop housing and golf courses on several area landfills and could mean the loss of millions in taxpayer dollars.

According to a report issued by state Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper, EnCap falsified its qualifications and took advantage of porous regulations and uncoordinated government oversight to secure hundreds of millions in contracts. The report also revealed an unusually close relationship between the McGreevey administration and a law firm representing EnCap, and suggests that DEP officials may have been pressured to overrule or ignore regulations to push the development through.

"The abuse is right out there in the EnCap report. It shows what happens when political influence is used within DEP, and how the public interest and the environment are raped. It's a gaping wound," said Wolfe.

Tittel too worries that attempts to make DEP policy more streamlined and flexible would ignore the lessons of EnCap.

"How much streamlined and flexible can you be? Look at EnCap. My God, anything more streamlined and flexible than EnCap and you might as well not even have a DEP."