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I live in an area where basic infrastructure like this is safety critical. It was installed 50-100 years ago over a weekend for ~ $10Ks of 2025 money, with no environmental impact and lasted half a century with zero upkeep.

Now, with modern permits, etc, these projects take 5-10 years, $10M’s and have significant environmental impact.

As a direct result, every few years, people around here burn to death or lose their homes or whatever.

So, everyone is less safe, and the environment suffers.

Also, I make jokes about beavers, because it’s better than crying.




Permitting processes need reverse pressure: 'must reply or issue in ___ days' or it's granted by default.


Ok, this is hacker news, so let me put this in terms legible to a hacker: If "dropped queries" are forced to "grant permissions," you're establishing a system that rewards a targeted "dos attack."

That could potentially lead to some downsides.


The status quo also has downsides: no disincentives to making building orders of magnitude more difficult and expensive via permit delay.




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