Sec. 34.04.03.06. Issuance of Permits; Conditional Approval; Denial and Reconsideration

A. Types of Permits.

(1) The Trust may issue an intensive survey permit or a data recovery permit. A permit is exclusive to the applicant so that, for the duration of the permit and any applicable exclusive interest period, the Trust may not issue a permit to any other person for the same location.

(2) An intensive survey permit may be issued to an applicant to carry out an intensive survey for the purpose of:

(a) Delineating the boundaries of a specific location which the applicant believes may contain submerged archeological historic property; or

(b) Confirming that submerged property meets the criteria in Regulation .01A(3) of this chapter for applicability of these regulations.

(3) A data recovery permit may be issued to an applicant to conduct data recovery on submerged archeological historic property if the applicant has submitted evidence of submerged archeological historic property as a result of an intensive survey permit previously issued by the Trust for the same location.

(4) The evidence in §A(3) of this regulation shall include, as applicable:

(a) Documentary evidence, including all primary and secondary sources consulted;

(b) Remote sensing data; and

(c) Artifacts recovered from a proven site context.

B. Conditional Approval of Permit Applications. The Trust may approve a permit application but delay issuance of the permit until one or more of the following conditions have been satisfied within a time period determined by the Trust:

(1) The applicant has designated and, if required, placed into escrow the costs associated with the Trust's monitoring of the permitted activity, if monitoring is required by the Trust under Regulation .07B of this chapter.

(2) The applicant has identified and received the Trust's approval of the facility proposed to conduct conservation of any recovered artifacts.

(3) In the case of a data recovery permit, the Trust and the applicant have agreed upon all issues of disposition and title to submerged archeological historic property which may be recovered by the applicant.

(4) The applicant has furnished the Trust with a form of assurance acceptable to the Trust and adequate to guarantee that if activity under the permit is interrupted or abandoned, the necessary archeology, analysis, report preparation, conservation, and curation will be carried out in accordance with the research plan approved by the Trust. This assurance may be in the form of escrowed funds, a letter of credit, a performance bond, or other type of assurance acceptable to the Trust. The type and amount of assurance may be negotiated between the applicant and the Trust, but the amount normally shall be a sum equal to at least five times the amount budgeted and approved by the Trust for field recovery, unless a lesser amount is determined by the Trust to be acceptable.

(5) Any other condition the Trust considers necessary has been satisfied.

C. Denial of Permits. If the Trust determines not to issue a permit, the Trust shall issue a notice of denial.

D. Reconsideration. An applicant may request reconsideration of a denial by submitting a request to the Secretary if received within 30 days following the date of the Trust's denial notice. The request for reconsideration shall address each reason for the denial and provide documentation supporting reasons for reconsideration.

E. Hearing.

(1) A person aggrieved by the decision of the Secretary may request a hearing in accordance with COMAR 05.01.01.

(2) The hearing shall be held in accordance with the provisions of COMAR 05.01.01 for the hearing of contested cases.