The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ) are evaluating whether to initiate action to request that Low Impact Development (LID) should be considered in the design of all land development projects state-wide. They are conducting public workshops across the Commonwealth to provide an opportunity for the public to provide these agencies with comments on this idea. In Northern Virginia, the workshop is scheduled for Thursday, December 4, 2003 at the Fairfax County Government Center from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. If you would like to attend this workshop, complete the
registration form (Page 4) and email or fax it to Bruce Williams, Section Chief of USCAE Norfolk District, at
bruce.f.williams@usace.army.mil or (757) 441-7678, respectively.
On November 6, the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) briefed the Fairfax County Planning Commission on the concepts of LID. One significant issue is that the majority of LID practices appear to conflict with many Public Facility Manual (PFM) and Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) requirements. Similar problems exist in other localities.
Several Planning Commission members suggested that perhaps the PFM should be revised to encourage the use of LID. However, DPWES suggested that it was too difficult and time consuming to modify the PFM and that they would rather have developers apply for waivers to the PFM to incorporate LID practices. This is perhaps the most significant barrier to LID implementation and should be discussed at these public workshops. Otherwise, the development community will face the problem of having the USACE and DEQ mandate LID practices that then require discretionary approvals for waivers of various local regulations.
LID can be very effective in mimicking the predevelopment characteristics of a developed site, potentially at a lower cost than traditional practices, if certain land development requirements currently in place in most localities are revised.
The USACE has published a 25-page
LID checklist for engineers and land planners to assist in developing site plans that comply with LID practices.
For more information on this workshop refer to the
Public Notice. For more information on LID in general refer to these links:
Friends of the Rappahannock
http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/lid/
http://www.lowimpactdevelopment.org
Contact
Mike Rolband,
Frank Graziano,
Ian Smith,
Bill Nell to discuss how LID might affect future land development.
