The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (Bay Act) and accompanying Regulations were amended to address resiliency in the performance criteria required to be implemented by the 84 Tidewater localities under the Bay Act. An informal comment on the proposed guidance was previously held in December of 2022.
The draft guidance has been updated based upon comments received during the prior informal comments period, in particular revisions to accompanying examples. Additionally, a model ordinance, a locality implementation checklist, a resiliency assessment template, an adaptation measure checklist, and a list of nature-based adaptation measures have been developed.
Prior to finalizing the guidance and these additional documents, DEQ is providing for an informal comment period opportunity.
The informal comment period is from March 19, 2024, to May 3, 2024. Any comments should be submitted to Heather.Mackey@deq.virginia.gov and include name, organization represented (if any), mailing address and/or email address.
Additionally, a webinar co-hosted with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science is being held on April 3rd at 10:00 a.m to provide an overview of the updates, additional documents, and AdaptVa model for use in resiliency assessments. For additional information about the webinar, please contact Heather.Mackey@deq.virginia.gov.