Del. Admin. Code tit. 7, 100, 101 - Regulations Governing Delaware's Coastal Zone

May 11, 1999

Preamble

These regulations have been developed to accomplish two key goals. They have been designed to promote improvement of the environment within the Coastal Zone while also providing existing and new industries in Delaware's Coastal Zone with the flexibility necessary to stay competitive and to prosper - all while adhering to the edicts and nuances of one of the most original and innovative environmental and land use statutes in the world.

Delaware's Coastal Zone Act (the Act) was passed in 1971 and provides to the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and the Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board the authority to promulgate regulations to carry out the requirements contained within the Act. For numerous reasons, regulations were never adopted and implementation of Coastal Zone Act was left to an undefined and informal process that frustrated industry and environmentalist alike. That frustration further polarized the debate over the original intention of the Act and what the focus of any regulations should be.

Finally, 25 years after passage of the Act, the negative implications of not having regulations came to outweigh the contentiousness of the debate. An advisory committee of dedicated Delawareans was then convened and, after eighteen months of oftentimes difficult debate, came to consensus agreement on how to embody the linked goals of industry flexibility and environmental improvement. The committee's agreements were memorialized in a Memorandum of Understanding between all participants. That MOU was founded on consensus, respect and necessity and it was used as a basis for these regulations.

The regulations have been amended to update them in accordance with the mandate of the Coastal Zone Conversion Permit Act of 2017 (CZCPA). Section 9 of the CZCPA mandated that the Department start a public workshop process to draft revised regulations consistent with the CZCPA no later than October 1, 2017, and that the revised regulations be promulgated by October 1, 2019. The Secretary engaged in a public stakeholder process and convened a Regulatory Advisory Committee (RAC), which provided recommendations on a number of discretionary issues. The RAC, chaired by former Justice Randy Holland, formed workgroups to focus on issues of financial assurance, offsets, economic benefit, and environmental impacts. The RAC deliberated on the workgroup findings and prepared comprehensive recommendations to the Secretary on revisions to the Regulations Governing Delaware's Coastal Zone. The RAC's work and recommendations were presented at open houses and public comments were received. The Secretary's draft regulations were also presented to the Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board for approval, as mandated by the Act. The Regulations were formally promulgated and a public hearing was held and comments received, consistent with the Administrative Procedures Act. The final version of the Regulations was published in the Register of Regulations on September 1, 2019 and became effective on September 11, 2019. The original purpose of the regulations continues and is enhanced through these regulations that provide for coastal zone conversion permits to return industrial sites to active use or more productive use while ensuring the protection of natural resources.