I have a friend who's a member of a wealthy family here and had successfully developed several large outlet mall centers and standard malls across the country. He made the mistake of expanding into Louisiana and ran into their Department of Environment Quality. If any state has more corrupt politics than Alabama, it's there. After he thought he was properly permitted and sunk millions in site prep and signed up his anchors, the department "discovered" he'd destroyed a wetland. (Isn't all of LA a wetland?) He had to purchase 100s of acres of pinelands and donate them to the state. He also had to make private "peace" with certain officials. Construction was set back a year, two years, finally almost four, during all of which time, interest was accruing and he was losing tenants. In the end, he bankrupted. ADEM is no better. I've had clients dangle for years on matters which should have taken weeks to resolve. I settled one matter after years by inserting a deed clause to the effect no one would drink ground water from the site. The site was a shopping center...