JOHN HOOD COLUMN: Shot clocks for permits make sense

Published 4:26 PM Tuesday, July 30, 2024

RALEIGH — North Carolina plays a key role in the origin story of the shot clock in college basketball.

John Kap

That is, it was the “four corners” offense of the late Dean Smith, the Tar Heels’ longtime coach, that finally forced the NCAA’s hand in the 1980s. Although professional basketball had used a shot clock for decades, college sports leaders long resisted it. They thought that limiting the number of seconds a team could possess the ball without shooting would make offenses too similar and force them to take bad shots.
The turning point came in 1982, after UNC won the ACC championship by stalling for nearly seven minutes with a two-point lead over the Virginia Cavaliers. Conference officials relented and instituted a 30-second shot clock. The entire NCAA adopted it in 1985.
Now North Carolina is once again at the center of the shot clock debate, but in this case they apply not to players in a game, but to officials in regulatory proceedings.
During the 2023 session, the General Assembly passed a law that gives municipalities a 45-day “shot clock” to complete their review of permit applications for commercial construction or multifamily residential projects. It provides a 60-day window for “at risk” permits, during which applicants accept full liability if there are later problems with building structures or foundations.
Rep. Jeff Zenger (R-Forsyth), himself a developer, did not push for the change to penalize municipalities. “I personally think it benefits everyone involved,” he told the Triad Business Journal, by giving the private sector more predictability while also giving regulators an incentive to prioritize their time. Zenger noted that other state lawmakers appear poised to follow North Carolina’s lead.
Last year, the General Assembly also instituted other shot clocks. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality can consider air quality permits for up to 270 days for major changes and up to 90 days for minor changes. For water quality certifications for dredging and pipeline projects, the DEQ uses a 90-day shot clock for issuing permits for projects that require public hearings by law. For projects that don’t require a hearing, the clock runs out after 60 days.
This session, many lawmakers want to apply the same time limits to water quality permits for a new power plant built on the same site as the one it would replace. In Catawba and Person County, for example, Duke Energy wants to replace coal-fired plants with natural gas. After a 30-day period to ensure the permit application is complete, DEQ would have 90 days to complete reviews of projects that require a public hearing and 60 days to review others.
In late June, the measure passed the North Carolina Senate with all Republicans in favor and all but one Democrat opposed. It now awaits action in the House Rules Committee.
There is nothing magical about these particular numbers. Lawmakers may have to adjust the day counts as industries and regulators adapt to the new rules. But the basic concept of regulatory shot clocks is sound. It properly balances the legitimate interest of public health and safety with the legitimate interest of ensuring public access to housing, employment, and affordable energy.
The problem extends beyond state and local permitting. Robert Poole, director of transportation policy for the Reason Foundation, argued in a recent article that environmental lawsuits are holding up badly needed infrastructure projects. “There is growing support among thought leaders and a wide range of business, labor and government organizations,” he wrote, that the current process has “gone too far” and created costly “obstacles and delays.”
Among the reforms Poole advocates are the bells needed to file and resolve legal challenges to new construction or renovation projects.
North Carolina is not California, which is known for wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on a nascent high-speed rail project, in part because of years of regulatory review. But it still takes too long to build things here. Kudos to state lawmakers for doing something about it.

John Hood is a board member of the John Locke Foundation.