Put your permit acquisition in experienced hands

A large and important part of Robinsong’s services for its clients is successful guidance through the permitting process. We understand the various permits, we understand the permitting procedures, and we have excellent relationships with the permitting agencies. We are creative yet imminently responsible when formulating permitting strategies.

Permits give the developer a clear framework to work within. Permits provide regulatory agencies with the assurance that their best management practices are being applied, and they provide the community with a voice in the process. Creating a successful permit application is as much of an art as a science, as much about relationships, experience and compelling communication as it is about surveys and site plans.

Current policy requires that a permit application go through “sequencing,” the term given to the process of applying the least environmental impact while fulfilling, as much as is practical, the initial goals of the commercial or institutional development. The desired sequence for permitting considerations is

Avoidance. Have the planners taken into account the avoidance of an environmental impact?

Minimization. If potential impact cannot be avoided, has it been minimized by the planners?

Mitigation. Mitigation is compensation for any unavoidable impacts through activities to restore existing wetlands or streams. If Avoidance and Minimization have been considered, is mitigation a solution and if so how much, and where?

We guide our clients through the application process from start to finish
Our permitting helps you submit applications that gain you the most operational freedom at the smallest cost as allowed by the EPA and Corps of Engineer’s regulatory guidelines. Whatever you need to fulfill the application requirements, we can provide it and then provide agency liaison throughout the remainder of the process, including, where applicable:

• Public Notice
• Comment period
• Public hearing
• Permit evaluation
• Environmental Assessment and Statement of Finding
• Preconstruction meetings

Types of permits that Robinsong can assist you with:

Individual permits
If your project may impact a significant amount of stream or wetlands, you will probably need an individual permit created specifically for your project.

General Permits
For many small-impact projects like driveway and road crossings, the Army Corps of Engineers often grants up-front general permits. These may be issued on a nationwide, regional, or state basis for particular categories.

NPDES Phase I and Phase II permits
Robinsong can write National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES Phase 1 and Phase II) permits. Robinsong has been involved with the Environmental Protection Agency during its formulation of the latest Section 303(d) rulings.

After-the-fact permitting
After-the-fact permitting for Section 404 enforcement actions is needed when a potential impact has been caused by development that was performed without an existing permit to do so. Robinsong is an especially important resource for after-the-fact impacters because we have experience with both onsite and offsite mitigation, both of which are often the outcome of an enforcement action for after-the-fact violations. We are seasoned coordinators with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA and are up-to-date on the Corp’s new requirements to provide mitigation for impacts to streams. Robinsong has been trained in Rosgen’s classification of streams for impacts and restoration and offer full service natural channel design and implementation.