It could be that permits are not required if you stayed within the previous structure's footprint.  

LIABILITY: Unless caused by Landlord, Landlord is not responsible to Tenant, Tenant's guests, family, or occupants for any damages, injuries, or losses to person or property caused by fire, flood, water leaks, ice, snow, hail, winds, explosion, smoke, interruption of utilities, theft, burglary, robbery, assault, vandalism, other persons, condition of the Property, environmental contaminants (for example, carbon monoxide, asbestos, radon, lead-based paint, mold, fungus, etc.), or other occurrences or casualty losses.

What environmental laws or restrictions may be place, what can be done for subdividing or development etc.?

I hope we can synch up at some point in the future as my planned footprint in Michigan expands. 

They did hire an environmental group in Oakland to mitigate some minor asbestos.

it is at an all time high, has no real utility and is not environmentally friendly and won't actually be used lol.

Deferring taxes until a later date (if I choose to exit the properties in the future) What if your taxes foot print is very small and you could have 1mm to pay off debt and purchase homes. 

Old sewer pipes from house to city were made of clay and can break over time).4. abandoned septic or oil tanks (environmental impact on leakage is huge)There are plenty of others, but these three are major.

Can anyone recommend a company to complete a Phase I Environmental Study on a 16 unit apartment building in the Madison, WI area? 

The sellers have agreed to give credit for half of the safety &  health related issues/repairs but only wants to cover the septic replacement with an escrow account as they're hoping that we'll handle the replacement, get reimbursed by the Department of Environmental Conservation/ Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) and refill the escrow to reimburse the sellers.