Opinion ID: 1530450
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: 1989 Permit Decision

Text: Even if the ALS's failure to seek relief of the waiver decision under N.J.S.A. 52:14B-8 is excusable, its failure to appeal the issuance of Gateway's original CAFRA permit in 1989 is not. The DEP incorporated the waiver in the permit. That permit was a final agency decision. In its decision, the DEP approved the issuance of a permit and, subject to seventeen conditions, authorized Gateway to commence construction. Because the permit allowed construction to begin, the DEP decided that it would not enforce the Policy against Gateway's project. Accompanying the decision was a thirty-one page decision summary outlining the DEP's findings of fact. The permit decision notified aggrieved parties of their right to appeal. That decision also informed any such parties of the time within which they must appeal. Within two days of the permit's issuance, the DEP forwarded a copy of the permit to the ALS. Consequently, the October 1989 permit and summary provided ALS with unmistakable written notice of the finality of DEP's decision. The ALS, however, failed to request a hearing or a stay of the issuance of the permit. See N.J.A.C. 7:7-5.1(a) and (d) (providing for requests for hearings and stays of issuance of permits within ten days of notice of permit decision). Nor did the ALS request a hearing before the then-existing CARB, to which appeals could be taken from Division decisions, to review the DEP's decision. See N.J.A.C. 7:7-5.1(b) and (b)(1) (providing for direct appeals of policy decisions with CARB; providing also for CARB review of Commissioner's determinations of contested facts) (subsequently repealed). Significantly, the ALS also failed to appeal to the Appellate Division within forty-five days of receiving notice of the DEP's action. That failure activates the bar of R. 2:4-1(b), which precludes ALS from appealing the original DEP permit, including DEP's waiver of the Policy. Because DEP subsequently modified the permit, the Appellate Division characterized it as an intermediate determination. 290 N.J. Super. at 509, 676 A. 2d 161. Only because the DEP in 1991 requested that Gateway modify its project, however, did the original permit decision become intermediate. Absent the DEP's request, the DEP's original decision in 1989 was final. Hindsight cannot transform a decision that was final when made into one that is merely intermediate. A contrary result would lead to the conclusion that no permit for a project would be final until construction was complete. Such a result could lead to the further conclusion that a future change would render interlocutory the major modification from which the ALS appeals as a final agency decision.