PlanEngage helped Pasco County communicate with the community, speed up the approval process, and save labor at every level on an essential new public infrastructure project.
The site provided useful project information and drone footage of the location as well as maps, illustrations, videos, links to other relevant sites, and before-and-after sliders. Images were used to help the local community understand the proposal and the impact it is likely to have. Following publication of the Notice of Permit Application, opposition and controversy did not develop, and because of the lack of any significant public opposition the State of Florida was able to accelerate the permit approval process for the expansion of Pasco County’s Resource Recovery Facility without additional public hearings. This is an exception to the rule in Florida – and within the United States – and is a useful model for how the approvals process for well-designed public infrastructure can be accelerated.
Specifically, this decision kept the project from going before the Hearing Officer with the Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) and simplifies the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Power Plant Siting Act (PPSA) permit approval process that involves Region 4 of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). Going before the Division of Administrative Hearings could have added as much as one year to the project approval schedule and $50,000 in project processing costs.
We prepared the Power Plant Siting Act (PPSA) permit application and the Clean Air Act Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit application in hard copy and .pdf formats, as required by the State of Florida. PlanEngage contributed to the success of the permit approvals, ultimately streamlining the process.
As a result, we were able to deliver the complex permit applications for the proposed modern waste to energy processes within the original budget and with no schedule delay. The Florida Department of Environment Protection, Pasco County, and Covanta – the facility operator under contract to Pasco County – recognized the value created by PlanEngageTM, with its ability to create an accessible, interactive, engaging, and unified presentation of the permit application content.
As Jason Gorrie, Project Manager for Pasco County, said, “We are delighted we can move forward with this project knowing we met our public engagement and compliance requirements. AECOM’s technical work and process leadership made an importance difference.”
