Department of Public Utilities Chesapeake Bay Map Evaluation and Map Revision

The City of Richmond’s Chesapeake Bay Resource Protection Area (CBPA) Map, its Resource Protection Area (RPA) and Resource Management Area (RMA) buffers and associated GIS layers have remained unchanged for several years. The City has seen an increased number of applications with site-specific perennial stream determinations that differ from the current regional mapping, suggesting that the conditions in the field may have changed from the existing Richmond CBPA map. In an effort to be proactive and create a more accurate CBPA Map, the City has contracted Greely & Hansen to survey & evaluate the RPA based on current conditions and revise the map.

Dramby Environmental will perform the survey and systematically field-verify the City’s RPA mapping in three phases starting at the upstream end of the RPA feature located in each priority zone identified and perform flow assessments using one of the protocols acceptable to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, which includes the North Carolina and Fairfax County field indicator protocols referred to in the document adopted by the Commonwealth of Virginia entitled "Determinations of Water Bodies with Perennial Flow, Guidance on the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area Designation and Management Regulations". If a specific priority zone does not have a mapped RPA, Engineer will review areas where we believe there is a high potential of containing an unmapped RPA feature (e.g. FEMA 100-year Flood Plain).

Notification to land owners included in the surveyed areas were sent certified mail, Friday April 25, 2025.

The location of the areas to be surveyed can be found here.