CRMC 



subcommittee, to promote the legislatively mandated consistency of CRMC actions with the 

 State Guide Plan. 



Inclusion of Applicable Development in the Permit Review Process 



Currently, the state building code does not stipulate that an applicable 

 CRMC assent must be obtained before a municipal building permit may be 

 issued. Although most building inspectors are cooperative with the coastal program, 

 others are poorly informed regarding program jurisdiction, or do not consider enforcement 

 of its jurisdiction a priority. 



Developers confirm that many developments affecting coastal features 

 or buffer areas proceed outside the permit process. During the past year, delays 

 in processing CRMC assents have been significantiy reduced, so "avoidance of delay" 

 cannot now be viewed as a more convincing motivation than a desire to circumvent the 

 process. 



Although failure to obtain a permit generally results in a sequence of 

 violation notice, ex-post review, and consent agreements, applicants avoid 

 important aspects of the permit conditioning process, avoid implementing 

 non-point source controls until the construction-related runoff and 

 sedimentation damage has been done, and may never be required to 

 complete full restoration. 



Recommendations 



***Working with the RI Building Commission, revise the state building 

 code to provide that CRMC assent conditions must be complied with before 

 an occupancy permit may be issued by local building inspectors. 



The Permit Review Sequence 



Because the order of permit review begins at the town level, proceeds to 

 DEM and then finally to CRMC (as advised by the Division of Planning), permits may 

 never reach CRMC, or may have been conditioned or approved in ways which are 

 inconsistent with the ecosystem management mandate of the CRMP, or which are not 

 conducive to large scale problem resolution. 



Applicants find that variances, conditions, or special exceptions issued pursuant to one 

 permit granting agency may be unacceptable to another. Flexibility of response is 

 constrained, even though expert opinion unavailable to municipal agencies in the early 

 stages of the process is introduced later at the state level. CRMC , at the end of the 

 permitting process, is frequently placed in the position of requiring substantive changes in 

 plans which have emerged from a review process involviiig months of hearings before 

 various bodies. Once municipal approval has been obtained, the ability of state agencies to 

 work with the developer to mitigate potential impacts is severely constrained, though 

 agencies such as CRMC may have the broadest powers to consider environmental impacts 

 (Olson and Lee, 1984). 



With regard to local impacts, building and subdivision permits are obtained fk)m a range 

 of town commissions; approval for on-site sewage disposal systems is granted by DEM's 



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