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And, as mentioned, what will happen in this current process, if agreed to, the application will
<br />come in, the assigned planner will have 15 days to accept or reject. So, the applicant will not
<br />need to wait a long period if the application is rejected. It will be a short period for turnaround.
<br />But, if it is accepted within that five [sic], fifteen days, then from the date of submittal, the
<br />planner has 60 days to respond. That 60 days also allows time—there are a number of situations
<br />where the assigned planner needs to get, receive comments from governmental agencies, so,
<br />there are a number of agencies that may be involved in a review such as if the, if the
<br />development is along the shoreline, we may want to hear from the Department of Land and
<br />Natural Resources, from Department of Public Works regarding the flood zone. If it's within a
<br />historic district or it's on a State register, we'll want to hear from Department of Land and
<br />Natural Resources, Historic Preservation Division.
<br />And, so those reviews take time. They, she receives the application. She sends out for
<br />comments. She can't finalize her review until she receives those comments back. Sometimes,
<br />they don't come back for 30 days. So, it holds up the process again, and then she has to ask for
<br />additional time from the applicant.
<br />Continuing on. Rule 9-10(i) assessments, the SMA Short Form Assessment application. The,
<br />we—the Department may create a SMA Short Form Assessment to be used by the Department to
<br />assess uses that may result in a determination that the proposed use is exempt. Example, single-
<br />family residence, minor grubbing, or accessory structures.
<br />The Short Form Assessment may include but not be limited to the following information. The
<br />tax map number for the property; a plot plan for the property, drawn to scale, with all proposed
<br />and existing structures shown thereon; description of the proposed action, including the extent of
<br />land clearing, if any; and description of any known historical sites, anchialine ponds, wetland, or
<br />sandy beach, and any other pertinent information.
<br />In case of a single-family dwelling, a building permit application plot plan may suffice as the
<br />plot plan required under number two. So, if it is a part of a single-family dwelling, they won't
<br />need to submit a separate site plan. That will be part of their application.
<br />The reason for this change is the Department had created an SMA Short Form Assessment
<br />application that was done by the applicants. There was information that was requested on the
<br />short form assessment application that basically held up the process. They needed to have
<br />signatures from landowners. Normally, this would be done by a draftsperson that's running the
<br />plans for them. The whole process stops. They have to go back. They have to get a signature
<br />from the landowner. And, there was other information that even though it was supposed to be,
<br />help the process, it ended up bogging the process down. What we're trying to do is when these
<br />applications come into the Department, the Department staff will have this form available to
<br />them, and they will be able to fill it out based on the request from the applicant. We're hoping
<br />that this will expedite the process, and that they would be able to get the exemption for the SMA
<br />at that time.
<br />The other reason for this is there was a change in our Department where the, we had an in-house
<br />memo that basically, because of the holdups that were happening at the counter, the Planning
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