Changes on the horizon for wetland building

Washington, D.C.

The U.S. government will soon impose tighter control over how builders obtain permits for wetland areas, a change that the National Association of Home Builders believes is unnecessary and burdensome to the industry.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will release the new regulations, intended to help protect fragile and rapidly dwindling wetlands, at the end of the month, the trade group said.

The homebuilders, who said they had been given early indications of what would be in the final regulations, said the Corps wants to eliminate nationwide permits for building on wetlands so that only individual project permits are obtainable. Individual permits, which refer to a single project in a specific location, take longer to be granted. Nationwide permits, however, are issued on a regional or nationwide basis and have fewer requirements.