HB 1307 (Hodges) and HB 1308 (Hodges) were unanimously passed by the Senate on February 20 by votes of 40-0. Having previously passed the House of Delegates on February 6, these two bills now head to the Governor’s desk for signing.
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 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.
VACo Contact: Chris McDonald, Esq.