will now go back to ACOE who cannot keep up with the work they have. We have projects that have been in permitting with FDEP for years that will essentially have to start over. This will add another year plus to the permitting process and push the cost of the final product even higher while stifling supply to build new houses, which will drive up prices of existing houses. Millions have bene spent on plans, reports, calculations, listed species surveys etc and agreements reached with FDEP and USFWS that are all out the window now. Already entitled property just went up in price with the hammer of a gavel. POLITICO Pro | Article | Judge overturns Trump-era decision giving Florida federal wetlands authority A federal judge has overturned a Trump administration decision to hand Florida authority over the federal wetlands permitting program, a win for green groups that fought the transfer and a setback for Florida developers who were already facing a backlog in permit applications. In a decision handed down late Thursday, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Randolph Moss concluded that EPA and the Fish and Wildlife Service had erred in 2020 by approving protection from Endangered Species Act liability as part of the Clean Water Act permits. He found that the agencies had failed to conduct a rigorous analysis of how transferring the program to Florida would impact the 139 endangered or threatened species that live within the state. "In short, the Court is persuaded that the FWS’s programmatic [biological opinion] and [incidental take statement] fail to satisfy the requirements of the ESA, and the Court is unpersuaded that the non-statutory technical assistance process is a lawful substitute for the procedures and remedies that Congress enacted in the ESA and that the Services established in the implementing regulations," Moss wrote in a 97-page opinion." The details: EPA's approval of Florida's wetlands permitting program was the third time that the federal agency has handed over authority for issuing federal permits, but offering blanket ESA compliance as part of the transfer was novel. Florida had argued that requiring permit applicants to seek individual incidental take permits or elevating permit applications to EPA when endangered species could be affected by projects being developed was too "burdensome" and "time-consuming." Instead, EPA took Florida's suggestion to do a one-time ESA consultation and issue a program-level Biological Opinion and Incidental Take permit. The agencies also committed to a technical assistance process that would deal with case-specific issues.
Well it is expensive to successfully break or circumvent the law, which is why that space is dominated by rich people. But also not sure why it isn't plainly obvious that individual projects should do individual analyses. A developer will be the first to tell you that every project is different. By what logic would this particular aspect escape that truth? "Burdensome" and "time-consuming" are qualifiers for all sorts of quality workmanship.
Changing the rules midstream is unprecedented. Individual projects do individual impact analysis and also comprehensive if big enough. Nobody is trying to circumvent the process, just hold the target still.
