Sherrill administration boasts of big reductions to permit backlogs

Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration boasted of large reductions in permitting backlogs Tuesday after the governor said state departments expanded staffing and siloed permitters to more efficiently complete reviews that sometimes drag for months or even years.

The changes had so far cut nearly three-quarters of backlogged requests for environmental reviews that indicate the presence of wetlands and other protected waterways and reduced the backlog of permits to connect or alter low-traffic driveways that touch state highways by 83%, Sherrill and department heads said during a press conference Wednesday.

“It’s not just speed for speed’s sake. It’s realistically assessing how quickly we can get through these permits while at the same time upholding our strong standards,” the governor said at a Department of Transportation training site in Bordentown.

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Permitting reform is the cornerstone of Sherrill’s pitch to private sector employers. On the campaign trail last year, she pledged to cut permit clearance times to prevent the government from holding businesses in limbo.

The administration in April launched a website to centralize permitting across three departments — those that oversee transportation, environmental protection, and community affairs — in a single place and has since added about 50 staff members to review permits within the Department of Environmental Protection alone.

“Permitting has a direct impact on how quickly projects move forward, businesses expand, and investments take shape in New Jersey,” said Transportation Commissioner Priya Jain. “I think I’m stating the obvious that when a business, developer, or municipality applies for a permit, timely decisions can make a real difference in project planning, cost, and schedules.”

Different types of permits require different levels of review, and some are far more expansive than others, and the amount of time a permit could sit before being marked as backlogged varied, said Jain.

Still, some applications before the Department of Environmental Protection sat without action for more than a year.

“We process about 20,000 permits a year at the Department of Environmental Protection. There were so many that were over 18 months, waiting to start a process, waiting to decide where I can and how I should design a project,” said Environmental Commissioner Ed Potosnak. “They can’t even get started. My heart sank. I thought, ‘This is unacceptable.’”

His department has sought to bring permit wait times below a year, Potosnak said, adding that reduced delays could help speed housing and other production in New Jersey.

While some classes of permits have seen massive reductions in backlogs, gains have been smaller and slower for more complicated applications.

The backlog for major access permits, which are needed to connect driveways with at least 500 daily trips to state highways, has fallen by 19%, and the backlog for remedial action permits issued by state environmental regulators has declined by 25%, officials said.

The governor’s push to speed permitting has drawn praise from the state’s business community, even among some who admitted doubts about her campaign trail promises.

“My members and others here today have heard all the promises before and are naturally skeptical,” Dan Kennedy, CEO of the New Jersey Commercial Real Estate Development Association, said at Wednesday’s press conference. “You have turned a lot of that pessimism into optimism already.”

The permitting progress made so far has sped commercial real estate projects in the state, allowing faster environmental cleanups that cut overall production times, Kennedy said.

Business groups have noted the shift in posture from the prior administration under Gov. Phil Murphy, even if it materialized in more frequent communication with business groups.

“To have everybody there at the table to talk, honestly, we didn’t really have that in the last go-around,” said Mike Egenton, executive vice president for government relations at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.