Norfolk City Council Unanimously Adopts Resilient Zoning Code In Face Of Sea Level Rise

[hatrack]

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The Norfolk City Council unanimously voted to adopt a new zoning ordinance Tuesday night, which they hope will address the issues with sea level rise in the coastal city.

They’ve been working on the re-write for several years, dedicating a website to the project and hosting their first public input meeting in 2015. The last time the city re-wrote their zoning ordinance was in 1992. Reducing risks from flooding, conserving energy and managing storm water are some of the ways the city states in the 811 page document they will promote resiliency and make Norfolk the “coastal community of the future.”

Under the new ordinance, developers and builders of both residential and non-residential structures will be required to follow a “resilient point system,” unless exempted. The system allocates points to builders for including things like operable storm shutters and elevating the bottom floor of their structure by three feet. For each component of the system, the document states there is a minimum total of points they need to have.

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Jack Blake, a realtor with Keller Williams Realty, also expressed his worry with the cost of implementing the new ordinance and asked the council, “Having the most resilient zoning code in the country is a great headline, great for PR, but if we short-circuit the recovery we’ve had in the housing market in order to accomplish that, have we really made a step forward?”

EDIT

http://wavy.com/2018/01/25/norfolk-focuses-on-becoming-flood-resilient-with-new-zoning-ordinance/

[wasupaloopa]

1. Anyone who buys a house that needs to be 3 feet higher is just plain nuts.