Bay Act Resiliency webinar and locality implementation documents

A webinar co-hosted with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science was held April 3, 2024, to outline the updated guidance, examples, and tools and to provide an overview of AdaptVA. A copy of the webinar presentation is available:

For additional information about the webinar, please contact Heather.Mackey@deq.virginia.gov.

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. Informal comment periods for the proposed guidance were previously held in December 2022 and in April 2024.

The draft guidance is being reviewed based upon comments received during the prior informal comment periods, in particular, revisions to accompanying examples. A model ordinance, a locality implementation checklist, a resiliency assessment template, an adaptation measure checklist, and a list of nature-based adaptation measures are also being developed.

The documents under review include:

Resiliency Draft Guidance

Resiliency Examples (including illustrations by WPL of Virginia Beach)

Model Ordinance

Resiliency Amendments Checklist for Locality Implementation

Resiliency Assessment Template

Adaptation Measures Checklist Template

Nature-based Adaptation Measure List

Regulations

Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area Designation and Management Regulations

Guidance

 Stormwater related guidance can be found on DEQ’s stormwater here and all program guidance is available on Virginia’s Town Hall.

Manuals

Bay Act Compliance Review Procedures Manual 

Templates

Bay Act Locality Website Publication Template

Publications