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DEP details delegated authority, municipal capacity and the new MALS permitting tool
Summary
DEP explained differences between delegated authority and municipal capacity, listed municipalities with each status, described jurisdictional caps (e.g., 10‑acre cap for municipal reviews) and introduced MALS, an online licensing and site‑map explorer to view permits by town.
At the Municipal Planning Assistance webinar, Kareem Gungor of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection described two distinct ways municipalities can handle site‑law permitting: delegated authority (site delegation) and municipal capacity. He said delegated authority grants a town authority to review certain site‑law projects provided the town has ordinances, resources, and public‑notice and appeal procedures that meet statutory requirements; every transfer or order remains appealable to the Board of Environmental Protection.
Gungor said delegated authority has jurisdictional caps. He described examples: municipalities can handle subdivisions on parcels under 100 acres and structure/impervious‑area projects up to the delegated caps, while projects exceeding those caps (for instance, an 11‑acre impervious project) remain the department’s responsibility. He noted that the upper limit on municipal review of impervious area had been increased from seven to ten acres in a 2021 amendment.
He listed the six delegated‑authority municipalities as Auburn, Bangor, Lewiston, Portland, Saco and Topsham, and said the department maintains an online table of delegated towns. For municipal capacity — a separate exemption under which projects are permitted locally without required DEP notification — Gungor listed 10 towns with municipal capacity (Belfast, Brunswick, Caribou, Holden, Kennebunk, Poland, Sanford, Scarborough, Skowhegan(?) and Wells) and emphasized statutory caps still apply.
Gungor also introduced DEP’s new enterprise licensing system (MALS). He said the Land Bureau was the first to adopt MALS, that applications and compliance tasks are now processed in the system, and highlighted a public site‑map explorer that anyone can use without creating an account to see current permit applications and issued permits by town.
He encouraged towns interested in applying for stormwater capacity or delegated authority to contact DEP staff (he identified his supervisor Jesse Damon as the point of contact for municipal capacity and delegated authority questions) and said Wyndham has recently applied and is under review.
