Concord — May 13, 2009 — DES is embarking on a new agency initiative to improve its technical assistance and permitting programs to achieve superior environmental results, streamline permitting procedures, and improve coordination with other agencies and municipalities. The initiative is titled “Innovative Land Development Technical Assistance and Coordinated Permitting Project.”
This project is funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under its State innovations Grant program. DES was selected as one of three recipients nationwide under this program in 2008.
As part of this project, DES intends to establish voluntary guidelines for achieving a higher standard of environmental performance for land development activities, explore opportunities to enhance our pre-application meetings with potential permit applicants, and identify ways to bett er coordinate state and municipal project reviews and standards.
It also seeks to develop new procedures to guide more coordinated and streamlined permitting activities, as well as improve technical assistance to encourage the adoption of best land development practices. DES will pilot the new policies and procedures by selecting a cross-section of different types of projects from across the state starting in late 2009.
DES hopes to work closely with developers, contractors, engineers, municipalities, environmental organizations, and others involved in land development activities during this project. During the course of the project there will be numerous opportunities for informal and formal input, including focus groups on specific topics, public stakeholder meetings on draft materials, and opportunities to submit formal comments on proposed policies and procedures.
Additional information is available at www.des.nh.gov; search “Innovative Permitting Initiative.” To be included on a contact list for this project, or if you have questions, please contact Carolyn Russell, DES Senior Environment and Land Use Planner, at (603) 271-3010 or carolyn.russell@des.nh.gov.
I hope they do something. We started the permitting process for a new wall in December of 2007. Our old stone wall has been collapsing in on itself for several years.With the Shoreline Protection Act coming we thought we would start the process before it was enacted.We took pictures,we sent in plot plans,we took measurements, and we filled out paperwork. This was all submitted by an Engineer. Several months later we recieve a letter requesting more information. This information is sent in. several more months go by and we get another letter saying we have to resubmit the application because of the enactment of the shoreline protection act. We resubmit the paperwork again. I would like to point out that everytime the Engineer resubmits, we get charged money. After this we finally get a letter
stating our application for the wall has been denied, because they have determined that the high water mark is beyond the wall. They determine this without ever visiting the location.
The only time it ever goes above the wall is when the group controlling the dam cannot get ahead of the rain or snow melt.
Talk about wasted money and frustration. I should just do what the guy over near the Bluffs is doing. Put the wall in and see if I get fined. If I get fined stall them until I die.
Steve thats pretty much what we all have to do, the DES is a joke and has no clue what happens on this lake. Iceout on the main lake does more to change the shoreline than I could ever do in a lifetime.
The Ossipee River would be the natural state of Broad Bay. What we have today is a manmade facade covering over the Ossipee River. It is still there and seasonally visible when the dam is open and the main lake is low. We have a Bay because there was a Government supported interest to actively retain and control water flow. If the dam were to fail we do not have the logging, hydro or downstream mill interests to justify repairing it and a restored Ossipee River flood plain would more naturally avert seasonal downstream flood concerns. Recreation seems the only legitimate remaining purpose for having a Broad Bay. Innovative, coordinated and standardized efforts to control the accelerated erosion of an artificial shoreline seems consistent with a reasoned purpose of retaining the current manmade shoreline.