HB 1307 (Hodges) and HB 1308 (Hodges), which seek to fix the so-called stormwater “donut hole,” have advanced out of the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee and now report to the full House.
The bills, drafted upon the recommendations of the HB 1774 Workgroup (named after Delegate Keith Hodges’s 2017 legislation that led to its creation), seek to address rural Tidewater localities’ concerns regarding the administration of stormwater regulations for land disturbances of 2,500 square feet to one acre and to find alternative means for treating and using stormwater in the applicable localities.
HB 1307 allows any rural Tidewater locality, as defined in the bill, to comply with water quantity technical criteria for certain land-disturbing activities through a tier-based approach that is based on the percentage of impervious cover in the watershed. HB 1307 reported out of committee by a vote of 22-0.
HB 1308 “authorizes a rural Tidewater locality, whether or not it has opted out of administering a stormwater or erosion and sediment control program, to require that a licensed professional retained by the applicant submit a set of plans and supporting calculations for land-disturbing activities that disturb 2,500 square feet or more but less than one acre of land.” Such plans, signed and sealed by the professional, shall be accepted by the locality in satisfaction of the local plan review requirement. HB 1308 reported out of committee by a vote of 22-0.
Both bills will be placed on the House of Delegates floor calendar later this week.
VACo Contact: Chris McDonald, Esq.