Title
Comprehensive Plan Amendment to Adopt the 2024 Natural Infrastructure Resilience Plan by Reference into the Hampton Community Plan (2006, as amended)
Purpose
Background Statement:
In spring 2023, the City began a citywide process to analyze Hampton’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. Throughout the process, a City Staff Advisory Committee and a Community Steering Committee contributed strategies to protect and enhance natural infrastructure in Hampton. This process resulted in the Natural Infrastructure Resilience Plan.
The plan provides strategies for the management, protection, and restoration of natural infrastructure in Hampton and identifies opportunities to plant new vegetation to slow and store stormwater, buffer from coastal storms, and adapt to rising tides. The plan also identifies areas to create cooling landscapes to mitigate heat impacts, equitable landscapes to distribute the benefits of natural infrastructure in underserved neighborhoods, and connective landscapes to increase access to open space.
This plan is complementary to the Resilient Hampton Initiative’s watershed and neighborhood-level resilience plans (2021, 2023) and existing citywide policy framework, the Living With Water Hampton Plan (2017).
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).
Recommendations:
Rec
Staff Recommendation:
Approval