(a) From the effective date of a program approved or adopted by the Commission, a project approval that involves land located in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area or the Atlantic Coastal Bays Critical Area may not be granted unless the project approval is consistent and complies with the program.

(b) (1) The Commission shall adopt regulations identifying those classes of applications for project approval of which the Commission wishes to receive notice.

(2) From the date designated by the Commission in approving or adopting a program, an applicant for project approval or the local agency authorized to grant project approval on an application in any of the identified classes shall send to the Commission in accordance with the regulations and any other instructions of the Commission, a copy of every pending or new application for approval that is in any of the identified classes. Before the close of the fifth business day after receipt of a copy of an application from the applicant or the local approving authority, the Commission shall send written notice of receipt to the applicant and to the local approving authority. A failure of the Commission to send a timely notice shall render paragraph (3) of this subsection inapplicable as to that application.

(3) The local approving authority may not process an application of which a copy must be sent to the Commission until the local approving authority has received notice of receipt from the Commission, and any action of the local approving authority in violation of this paragraph shall be void.