Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1537782
HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JULY 28, 2025 15 think that over time, those things sort of build up and calcify. … Sometimes they're redundant, sometimes they're unnecessary, sometimes they're no longer relevant. And it takes a concerted effort to look back and say which things are still relevant, and which ones are not." The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is one of the most notorious regulatory agencies in Connecticut — it oversees 125 state and federally mandated permitting processes. The morass of red tape has created an opportunity for improvement, which DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes has made a hallmark of her tenure at the agency. "I hear just as much from devel- opers as from our own staff about how important it is to make these processes work better for our goals," Dykes said. "Because when permit- ting works effectively, it means that someone who wants to invest in the state is getting an answer faster with less friction." When Gov. Ned Lamont tapped Dykes to lead the agency in 2019, he asked her to make DEEP more efficient, she recalled. "He said he'd been on the campaign trail … and he heard from lots of businesses that DEEP was a black box and that it took too long to get answers, that it was really difficult to know how to navigate the process," Dykes said. "I think some of that was a bit misplaced," she continued, "but we rolled up our sleeves and got to work." Dykes launched an effort to stream- line DEEP's permitting processes through an initiative she calls 20BY26. The project outlines 20 performance goals that DEEP plans to achieve by the end of 2026, with the aim of improving the transparency, efficiency and predictability of its permitting. Uniquely complex As a densely populated state with an industrial legacy, Connecticut has particularly complex permitting needs, Dykes said. "As we think about new infrastruc- ture projects, new developments coming into the state, folks are often working with parcels that have been previously disturbed," she said. "We may be looking at a brownfield. We may be looking at a location that's close to a lot of population centers." Those factors not only make permitting processes more involved, but underscore their necessity to "accommodate the next generation of investments while also protecting human health and the environment," she explained. A key component of 20BY26 was establishing a business concierge service, or a "one-stop shop" for applicants, stakeholders, munici- palities and developers to obtain information and status updates about applications. The concierge service debuted in 2021. "That provides a lot of benefits for the applicant in terms of having clear communication and someone that they can call all the way through the process to help them navigate the different programs within the depart- ment," Dykes said. "It also provides a lot of benefits to our DEEP staff, so that our technical staff, our permit writers, can conserve and focus their time on processing permits." During an internal review, DEEP discovered that about 40% of staff time was being taken up with back- and-forth correspondence with applicants about their incomplete applications, Dykes said. DEEP's reforms also involve guiding developers toward properties where they will face the least amount of environmental hurdles. The agency has created an online database of endangered and threatened species, which developers can use to find out if a property will trigger an endan- gered species review, Dykes said. Also, the newly created Commu- nity Renewable Energy Siting Tool helps solar developers find the least environmentally conflicted sites for developing solar facilities. Further, DEEP has undertaken a wide-ranging review of its 125 permitting processes to determine the reasonable amount of time that it should take to issue a decision for an application for each one. "I'm really proud to say that over the several years that we've been imple- menting this, we are achieving about 90% on-time completion rates for the 55 different types of permits that we expect to take about three months," Dykes said. She said DEEP has made adjust- ments by repositioning staff resources to where they're most needed. In addition to reducing timeframes, DEEP obtained legislative approval during the recent session to consol- idate multiple permit types into a single general permit category, simplifying the review process for certain regulated activities. For example, activities under indi- vidual permits from DEEP's pesticides division were combined into one general permit. "It's obviously a faster process for applicants, but also it helps conserve our staff time and our staff resources," Dykes said. Transfer Act sunset The crown jewel of the 20BY26 initiative was developing new and less burdensome regulations to replace the antiquated and unpopular Transfer Act. The Transfer Act requires prop- erty owners to conduct site-wide environmental investigations and, if necessary, remediation whenever certain types of properties are sold. The system has been criticized for being overly broad, costly and a major obstacle to real estate transactions and economic development, espe- cially brownfield sites. The Transfer Act will be fully phased out on March 1, 2026, and replaced by new release-based cleanup regulations, which trigger cleanup requirements by the actual discovery of a hazardous release — not by the transfer of a property or business. The new system, which has been in the works for years and was green-lighted by the legislature's Regulations Review Committee in April, is expected to reduce costs, speed up cleanups, and encourage redevelopment of blighted or underused properties. Connecticut was one of just two states operating under the Transfer Act system. Dykes said she hopes the changes will help shift people's perceptions about Connecticut. "I feel like Connecticut often has this problem of we're just kind of negative on ourselves," Dykes said. "We don't tell our story very well, and focus on those negatives. … We've been making these improvements. Now we need to get the perception to change as a result of it." CBIA applauded DEEP's efforts to optimize its permitting processes, SE RIES | CT'S ECONOMIC COMPE TITIVENES S Continued on next page Chris Davis U.S. State Regulatory Environment Rankings The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, evaluates and ranks state regulatory environments. It assesses how lightly — or heavily — states regulate aspects of economic activity. Connecticut ranked 40th in the most recent analysis.