At least where I live, you can get the papers from the same local authority that authorises building a new road or building, and perhaps the authority that handles zoning regulations if the land needs to be reclassified from e.g. "forest" or "agricultural use".

These things don't involve much new traffic to/from, don't pollute, hardly obstruct anyone's field of view, but may involve felling trees etc and building power lines. Environmental study rules are of the form "if x then study type y is required", and these have few xs but not none.