On September 10, 2007, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors (BOS) directed staff to look at ways to protect intermittent streams through expansion of Resource Protection Areas (RPAs). Currently, the RPA designation only provides 100-foot buffers to perennial streams. A study, which evaluated this idea, conducted by the Stormwater Planning Division (SWPD) of the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) for the Planning Commission in 2006 (based upon a sampling of six watersheds representing 17% of the County) determined that a 100-foot buffer on intermittent streams would increase the number of stream miles encompassed as RPA by 50.83% and buffer areas by 44.68%.

On August 29, 2007, the Norfolk District Regulatory Office released a public notice offering guidance on how it will consider Low Impact Development (LID) for commercial and institutional development projects. The original proposal was issued on July 22, 2004, with subsequent public notices seeking comment issued on August 10, 2006 and February 15, 2007 (see Field Notes Vol. 14, No. 6 and Vol. 11, No. 3 for this proposal's history). The proposal received numerous comments, which are reflected in the final version of the guidance.

On July 16, 2007, Fairfax County released a Letter to Industry to provide technical corrections and implementation suggestions with regards to the amendments to the 2001 Public Facilities Manual (PFM) relative to Low Impact Development (LID), which were adopted on March 12, 2007 (see Field Notes Vol. 15 No. 2). The Letter to Industry highlights certain elements of the LID amendments.

The Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board will meet September 20-21, 2007 and is expected to discuss the latest draft stormwater regulations on the second day of its meeting (Friday, September 21, 2007).

Legislation has been drafted to address problems raised by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) review of Dam Safety Regulations (see related article) – namely, how new development downstream of an existing dam can result in the upstream dam owner becoming responsible for costly upgrades to their dam to meet increased dam safety standards that are applied as a result of this development.

If you own a dam or are designing a dam, you should be aware that Virginia’s Department of Conservation and Recreation has proposed new Dam Safety Regulations, which may require upgrades of state regulated existing dams. However, larger (and safer) new dams will likely be the result. Five public hearings will be held throughout the state in October.

On September 6, 2007, the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s Environment Committee held a workshop to discuss the County’s strawman outline of a possible approach to encouraging “green” building practices through the Comprehensive Plan. The strawman outline was written in response to a June 27, 2007 memorandum to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors regarding green building initiatives for the private sector.