Title
Natural Infrastructure Resilience Plan Briefing
Purpose
PURPOSE/BACKGROUND:
In spring 2023, the City began a citywide process to analyze the city’s existing tree canopy percentage, quantify the resilience benefits of the tree canopy, identify opportunities to use natural assets to decrease flooding, and generate actionable goals and strategies to create a greener city. This is a briefing to present natural infrastructure data analysis, results from community engagement, and the draft goals and strategies of the Natural Infrastructure Resilience Plan and identified programs and policy to enhance Hampton’s tree canopy. This plan is complementary to Resilient Hampton’s watershed and neighborhood-level resilience plans (2021, 2023) and existing citywide policy framework, the Living With Water Hampton Plan (2017).
Discussion:
This presentation reviews the draft Natural Infrastructure Resilience Plan by: (1) presenting an overview of the planning process and community engagement results; (2) reviewing data analysis of the city’s tree canopy and other natural assts; and (3) discussing draft goals and strategies to protect and restore natural infrastructure throughout the community. Three key strategies identified in the plan are to (1) utilize an urban forestry program to manage the City's tree to provide habitat, flood mitigation, and urban cooling, (2) increase the city's tree canopy percentage, with a focus on planting implementation in disadvantaged communities, and (3) revise the City's codes and ordinances to support natural infrastructure.
This plan was funded through a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant administered through the Virginia Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Emergency Management (VDEM). The City contributed an in-kind match to partner with several consultants to create a Natural Infrastructure Resilience Plan, an Energy Assurance Plan, and implement the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program.
Impact:
Citizens throughout the City will benefit from the plan and the programs it results in, which will address coastal resiliency, reoccurring flooding, and natural resources conservation while enhancing our waterways, environmental sustainability, tax base, and quality of life. The Resilient Hampton Team will use the programs and policy identified within the plan to guide work planning, inform funding strategies, and prioritize grant seeking.
Recommendation:
Rec
No action is being requested of the Planning Commission at this time.