Central Environmental Licensing Process Urged : Government: Proposed restructuring would weaken the AQMD. Critics say it is a ploy to ease standards.

In a bold attempt to cut through a “puzzle palace” of environmental regulations that have been blamed for stifling business, state Environmental Secretary James Strock is proposing a drastic governmental restructuring that would, among other things, weaken the powers of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The Strock proposal would create seven environmental regions in the state to deal with air, water, toxics, pesticide and hazardous-waste management issues handled by a myriad of government agencies and offer business a one-stop permit process. A South Coast region would encompass Los Angeles, Orange, and parts of San Bernardino and Riverside counties. (The air district currently encompasses all four counties.)

“California has in many areas the strictest environmental standards in the world. California also has some of the longest permit delays in the world and those two things do not need to go hand in hand,” Strock said in an interview.

Business and environmental interests were immediately at odds over the proposal, renewing what has become an increasingly bitter debate over government efforts to improve the economic climate during a recession.

Environmentalists saw the plan as a effort to relax environmental standards and enhance Strock’s powers. But business interests saw it as an attempt to unscramble a “crazy quilt” of environmental regulations, which they see as having driven many corporations to move out of state.

Still in draft form, the plan if endorsed by Wilson would require legislative action in some areas, particularly where it proposes that powers to oversee environmental permitting be taken away from local government and vested in regions that would answer to state officials in Sacramento.

Designed to erase complaints from businesses that a complex and often duplicative permitting process is choking California’s economy, Strock’s proposal would move the staffs of all environmental boards and districts into centralized offices.

Permits would be issued administratively by the regional staffs but existing boards would retain authority over appeals. However, a new super-board would be created in each region to handle appeals of complex permits that cover more than one use.

The provision that is the most politically sensitive would place the power to make appointments to environmental boards in the hands of the governor. Appointment powers for some boards, particularly those governing the powerful air districts, are now often shared among governmental entities. The 12-member AQMD board, for example, includes one member each appointed by the governor, the Assembly Speaker, and the Senate Rules Committee, and eight members appointed by city and county governments from among local elected officials.

Anticipating environmental criticism, Strock said bold moves were necessary to bring some sort of order to a permitting system that he believes has burdened businesses with unnecessary costs, delays and bureaucratic frustrations. At the same time, he insisted vehemently that it was never his intent to relax California’s tough environmental standards.

Strock said his proposal was still a confidential “internal document” which may be modified after his agency heads have had time to react to it. He said the plan will undergo a “very extensive public participation process” after the proposal is put in final form and sent to the governor.

He said he purposely had not dealt with the enforcement of environmental regulation in his plan, preferring to wait and study the effect of the reorganization before determining whether enforcement authority also should be removed from local board control.

But his assurances offered small comfort to his environmental critics, who predicted that if Strock’s proposals are put into effect, it would only be a logical move to place enforcement power with the region because enforcement and permitting need to work together.

V. John White, a lobbyist for the AQMD and consultant to several air boards, suggested that the AQMD, which is frequently criticized by business interests for its permitting requirements and stringent enforcement of environmental regulations, is a prime target of the reorganization effort.

By dismantling the board, he said, the state would remove an entity that has been a trendsetter in environmental regulation and been successful at reducing pollution from large industrial plants and other stationary sources.

Gordon Hart, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, said: “They’re proposing radical surgery where a couple of aspirins might do.”

In the Legislature, Assemblyman Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto), said lawmakers may be reluctant to approve such drastic revisions in governmental structure.

“My first reaction is, “What’s broke? What are they trying to fix? If they’re going to make these dramatic changes--doing away with autonomous boards for water, waste and air--what is the case they’re making for taking away local control and putting this in the hands of the state?” he said.

Business leaders and some public policy experts were more charitable.

Joseph Bodovitz, director of California Environmental Trust, said blue ribbon study groups in the past have all concluded that transportation, land use and air quality were inextricably intertwined and could not be dealt with separately.

“Just because something is done in the name of environmentalism doesn’t make it wonderful,” he said. “Environmental law shouldn’t become as complicated as the Internal Revenue Code.”

Ray Remy, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, called it “essential” for California to streamline permitting and noted that in Los Angeles alone 79 different agencies--local, state and federal--issue permits and about $70 million a year is spent on regional planning although “there really is no recognized regional planning agency.” But Remy said the proposals would make sense only in the context of an overall growth management plan.

Several observers noted that the Strock recommendations are similar in some ways to pending legislation sponsored by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) that would establish seven regional agencies in the state’s large urban areas to replace the current air, water and other boards. Wilson has said he opposes that idea.

Environmental Remapping

James Strock, secretary of Cal/EPA, is proposing a far-reaching restructuring of the state’s environmental agencies into seven regional districts. Among the newly created districts is a South Coast region encompassing Los Angeles and Orange counties and parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The plan: It would meld the dozens of agencies that now deal with water, air, toxics, pesticide and hazardous waste into seven regional districts.

The advantages: Still in draft form, the plan is designed to provide one - stop permit s for businesses. It attempts to accomplish that by giving the state more power over environmental permitting.

The drawbacks: Many environmentalists fear that the restructuring would result in a relaxing of environmental regulations and enforcement.