Twisted Dune wasn't a quarry when we started, it was flat as a pancake. But one of my favorite enviromental engineers , Gary Sawhill, called me up one day in 1998 and asked me if you could build a golf course by digging down. After a short pause, I told him sure but that the costs increase pretty dramatically when you start moving dirt around.
Suffice it to say we bought the property , had a short, fairly furious fight with EHT regarding whether we were a mining or golf course project , but ultimately prevailed and got permits to build. I don't think it hurt our cause in that the State needed the fill , so we had some political cover. It was an unusual site , free of any wetlands , endangered species and had a CAFRA permit to build a fairly large residential community, which the township didn't need or want. So , despite some roadblocks , there were lots of positives to embrace with our plan.
From there we proceeded to build the golf course, which wasn't a quarry but came to resemble one during the early stages of construction. I had seen some nice holes over the years that were built in old quarries eg (Black Diamond) and the thought of digging down ratherr than mounding up gave hope we could escape the chocolate drop motif of some of the courses in Florida . Indigenous dunefields in the state are well protected by the DEP , as they only occur along the beach (to the best of my knowledge) , given that , anything close to the littoral zones in NJ require tremendous costs to develop. Try rebuilding a dock and you'll find out how much. Perhaps, God willing this will change at some point. As to your query Pat , I'm negatory on the reg's easing.