The Office of the Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources (SNR) will be hosting a public meeting at the Northern Neck Planning District Commission Office in Warsaw, VA on August 4th. The goal of this public meeting is to educate stakeholders and the public about the Coastal Resilience Master Plan (CRMP) and to capture input and feedback that can help inform CRMP efforts moving forward.
Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster in the United States and in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginia’s coastal region is home to more than 70 percent of the Commonwealth’s population, and the State has the highest rate of sea level rise of any east coast state, putting billions of dollars in Federal, State, Local and private property, and infrastructure at risk. Without focused and funded action to reduce flooding and increase the resilience of neighborhoods and infrastructure, living with the water in Virginia’s coastal regions and communities will become more and more challenging in the coming years. The Commonwealth is developing the CRMP to improve flood resilience for residents in coastal regions of the State, and the participation of community members, businesses, non-profits, and locality stakeholders is critically important to this public planning process.
In developing the Virginia CRMP, the Commonwealth is working with the professional engineering firm Dewberry and their Team. Dewberry has conducted an Impact Assessment that characterizes how Virginia’s people and landscape will be affected by coastal hazards, now and into the future. This Impact Assessment incorporates coastal flood hazard modeling and analysis that shows coastal flooding risks, identifies planned work to reduce those risks, and shows where there are gaps between risks and solutions. These public meetings are intended to present the findings of this Impact Assessment, and create a process for continued public feedback that ensures participation and collaboration, as well as providing the public an opportunity to share their experiences with flooding and their perspective on solutions the CRMP should consider.
In addition to attending these and future public meetings, you can provide feedback to inform the CRMP process through the Coastal Resilience Stakeholder Survey. This Survey will gather information on local perceptions and interest in the planning process; inform the technical study effort; and provide insight into how communities would prefer to be involved and contacted in future outreach efforts. You can take the Public Survey by following this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VACRMP-Public.
All are welcome to participate in the public planning process. The meeting will be held August 4, 6:00 – 8:00 pm at the Northern Neck Planning District Commission Office: 457 Main Street, Warsaw, VA 22572. COVID protocols as directed by the meeting locations will be followed.
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