An improperly issued permit from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to fill wetlands may lead to the flooding of nearby properties. An application for a waterfront development permit may negatively impact local fishing or tourism, or create pollution or noise issues for nearby property owners. Neighboring property owners are often in the best position to raise such allegations and to offer evidence to support them in an administrative permit review process. However, under the current state of the law, these non-applicant property owners have no real ability to raise these concerns and to create an administrative record which might defeat an improperly issued permit and to protect their property.
By way of background, nearly three decades ago, in 1992, State Assemblyman Robert C. Shinn, Jr. (who later served as the Commissioner of the DEP from 1994 to 2002) introduced a bill concerning the ability of a third party to appeal a permit decision from a State agency. 1992 N.J. A.N. 1561. The bill became law in 1993 as an amendment to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and provides that no State agency may “promulgate any rule or regulation that would allow a third party to appeal a permit decision.” N.J.S.A. 52:14B-3.3.
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