Hartford - A bill that would loosen the permitting process for repairs of shoreline structures and empower residents and businesses to better protect their property from storms passed unanimously in the Senate Thursday night.

Overall, the bill aims to improve the dialogue between the public and the state's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and to address changes to sea level.

"It's really a good bill for whoever lives on and enjoys and values the shoreline," state Sen. Andrew Maynard, D-Stonington, said. "… I think we will find it streamlines and improves processes."

The bill grew out of work done by the Shoreline Prevention Task Force, which came together after Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011.

The final bipartisan bill ultimately was the combination of three bills. State Sen. Len Fasano, R-North Haven, sponsored two of the original bills. Maynard said he contributed to one of the original bills that would make the permitting process easier and would improve communication.

"(In) seven years, I never had a single issue more frequently brought to me than the challenge of commercial and residential permitting, having to do with docks, sea walls," Maynard said. "DEEP had a fairly aggressive and almost pretty hard-nosed approach to dealing with docks, many of which had been in existence for decades."

Permits to build or repair a shoreline structure such as a dock weren't required until 1939, Fasano said. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the permitting process was not strictly followed, he added.

Today, many people want to add onto their property or rebuild part of it, but the permitting process is lengthy, Fasano said. This bill would allow people with shoreline structures built before 1995 to apply for a certificate of permission, for which DEEP has a 90-day response deadline, instead of applying for a full permit application.

The bill also would establish a method of recourse for someone who is denied a certificate of permission by DEEP, Fasano said.

Instead of the owner having to keep applying for permission without feedback, the owner could contact the Office of Adjudication at DEEP and ask to speak with a hearing officer to discuss the issues.

The bill also addresses notices of violations. A DEEP representative often will leave someone a notice of violation, which might say that the structure has to be removed and that the owners needs to apply for the proper permit, Maynard said.

"To most people, that sounded like a very serious thing," Maynard said.

It could be a very costly and lengthy process and could lead to adjudication, he said.

If the bill were to become law, someone served a violation notice would have the ability to speak with a manager at DEEP to discuss what the notice means.

The bill also would allow someone to protect his or her ancillary business, such as a pool or detached garage, Fasano said. In the past, if someone owned a marina, he or she could put up a sea wall or jetty to protect it, but could not protect a restaurant on the property unless someone could prove during the permitting process that the protective structure had no environmental impact, Fasano said. Under the bill, if a person can prove the structure is the best way to protect his or her restaurant and it would have the least amount of environmental impact, they may obtain a permit, he added.

"The underlying bill will do a great deal to change the relationship between citizens of the state ... and enforcement agencies," Maynard said.

The bill also codifies the practice of allowing someone to protect their property with structures such as sandbags, fencing or a sandbank 24 hours before a storm is expected to hit, Fasano said.

The person would have 48 hours to take the structure down. In the past, this was only posted on DEEP's website and was not widely known, he said.

The bill received support from Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and has bipartisan backing in the House.

j.somers@theday.com