Wednesday, June 8, 2005

 

Builders release Wetlands Wish List

The National Association of Home Builders today released its Wetlands Wish List, a list of reforms that would improve the wetlands permitting process for home builders and home buyers. Release of the wish list coincides with the fifteenth anniversary of American Wetlands Month, focusing 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 David F. Wilson, president of NAHB and a custom builder from Ketchum, Idaho. "It is important that federal legislative and regulatory bodies continue to work with landowners to protect wetlands sensibly and cost-effectively."

1. Do not give ditches, curbs or gutters the same level of protection as wetlands.

Topping the home builders' wish list is getting from Congress clear, scientific guidance on what can be termed a wetland. A string of court decisions and inconsistent enforcement by federal agencies has made the definition unclear and overly broad, even requiring landowners 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.

Home building is one of the most regulated industries in the nation; in fact, securing a wetlands permit is one of dozens of rules and regulations builders must comply with. Builders applying for an individual permit to cover a specific project often find that it can take years to get their application approved. Delays like this increases the total cost of the project for builders and home buyers.

"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-like coverage to 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, the program has become less useful due to additional paperwork and a lengthened permit review time. NAHB urges the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the program, to remove these cumbersome requirements and make the program more expeditious.

"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."