CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
                   CITY COUNCIL AGENDA



 Agenda Date:             February 21, 2023

 Action Required:         None

 Presenter:               James Freas, Director of NDS

 Staff Contacts:          James Freas, Director of NDS

 Title:                   City of Charlottesville Environmental Standards


Background
This report follows a discussion at the January 24th Planning Commission work session on the approach to critical
slopes and the floodplain overlay district in the proposed new zoning. In that discussion, staff presented the idea of
looking more comprehensively at the City's environmental regulations. This report describes this idea in greater
detail.

Discussion
The focus of our work in the zoning ordinance rewrite has been primarily towards the major goals of the
Comprehensive Plan relating to affordable housing, land use equity, and promoting walkability and a high-quality
built environment reflective of the culture and history of Charlottesville. The environmental and climate mitigation
benefits of directing new growth towards the City are significant, but there is still more that we can do to advance
the environmental goals of the Comprehensive Plan.

The City has a robust environmental protection program; our objective looking forward is to address the following:


    1. Strengthen the City’s water quality protection program with a focus on riparian areas where there are
          parallel benefits of floodplain management, habitat protection, and tree canopy preservation.
    2. Ensure that the City’s environmental protection program does not unintentionally disincentivize and redirect
       development out of the City or result in inequitable land use patterns by balancing environmental and
       development benefits, targeting regulations to where they can have the greatest environmental benefits,
       and making the requirements predictable, achievable, and enforceable.
    3. Promote development that aligns with the City’s developing flood resiliency and climate adaptation plan
       strategies, which could include green design practices for sites and buildings.
    4. Match the regulatory program to the City’s staffing capacity and available resources.

Staff is proposing a two-step approach towards achieving these objectives. The first is to clarify and identify small
improvements for those environmental regulations currently found in the zoning ordinance as part of the current
zoning ordinance rewrite. The second would be a separate project to review, assess, and re-adopt the City’s
environmental program with broad community engagement, consistent with the goals and strategies of the
Community Engagement and Collaboration chapter of the Comprehensive Plan.

The Existing Environmental Program
The City of Charlottesville’s environmental regulatory program spans across a number of separate programs with its
primary focus on the management of water. The following focuses just on the City’s environmental regulations and
not on other policies, programs, projects, or educational efforts.

Stormwater Management Program – Arising out of the federal Clean Water Act and working its way through state
law and regulation, the City has been required since 2015 to regulate construction sites and new development to
reduce pollution entering into our streams and rivers. The City’s Erosion and Sediment (E&S) Control requirements
mandate that builders manage their construction sites to prevent water carrying sediment from leaving the site.
Following construction, developers are required to install stormwater infrastructure to manage water discharging
from the development site, slowing it to reduce the likelihood of downstream erosion and removing pollutants it
picks up as it runs across rooftops and pavement. Rather than removing pollutants projects can also purchase
nutrient credits, which gives the option to pay into existing pollution reducing projects in the same watershed area
rather than treating the stormwater on the development site itself. In Charlottesville, the requirements to provide
E&S controls and permanent stormwater management are triggered when a project exceeds 6,000 square feet of
disturbed area, which is a more rigorous standard than the State’s 10,000 square feet of disturbed area trigger for
E&S controls and 1 Acre for permanent stormwater management. The City exempts single family home
construction from the E&S/SWM requirements as long as they enter into an “agreement in lieu” for E&S and SWM
that requires minimal standards.

Critical Slopes – The City’s current critical slopes ordinance was adopted in 2011 to protect slopes of 25% or more
with 200 feet of a waterway in recognition of the negative impacts alteration of these environments can have on
water quality. The ordinance does not allow development activity, with some exceptions, on critical slopes. In many
respects this ordinance was superseded by the stormwater management program described above. In effect, the
retention of this ordinance suggests that the City has a policy preference for a natural approach to water quality
management over an engineered approach. Staff provided a more detailed look at this ordinance recently, which
can be found here. Waivers to the requirements of this ordinance may be granted by Council with the
recommendations of staff and the Planning Commission.

Waterway Buffers – The buffer ordinance, adopted in 2004, requires a 100-foot buffer area along the Rivanna
River, Moore’s Creek, and Meadow Creek composed only of natural vegetation. Certain exemptions are allowed for
pre-existing development or lots, which allow limited development within the 100-foot buffer area with a mitigation
plan approved at the discretion of staff based on consistency with the ordinance and a guidance document.

Floodplain Overlay – Charlottesville’s floodplains are regulated by a zoning overlay district. A detailed presentation
on the rules associated with this district can be viewed at the recording of the Planning Commission’s January 24
work session [link here, presentation starts at 1:14]. In general, the boundaries of this district are set by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mapped floodplains. Structures are largely excluded from the floodway
while in the remainder of the floodplain, the uses otherwise allowed by zoning are permitted if they elevate the
finished floor elevations at least 1 –ft above the base flood elevation (the height of the “100-yr storm”).

Trees– There are two primary environmental regulations pertaining to trees. The first is the tree conservation
program found in Chapter 18 of the City Ordinance. This program protects heritage, specimen, memorial, or street
trees nominated for protection and approved by City Council. The second set of requirements can be found in the
Landscaping and Screening requirements of the Zoning Ordinance. There, development projects are requested to
make reasonable efforts to protect existing trees. More importantly, a development must demonstrate a minimum
area of tree canopy as a percentage of the lot size depending on the zoning district (sec 34-869) ranging from 10%
to 20%. These percentages are set at the maximum allowed under state law.

Step 1 – As Part of the Zoning Rewrite

The objective of changes to the environmental program in this first step is to clarify existing rules and identify
reasonable small changes that can advance the goals of the Comprehensive Plan (inclusive of the Climate Action
Plan). This step will primarily consider changes to the Zoning Ordinance.
Critical Slopes – As was discussed at the January 24 Planning Commission work session, the Critical Slopes
Ordinance is proposed to remain largely the same. The primary change will be to reorganize and reword the section
for clarity. One significant area for clarification is in the nature of the “public benefits” to be weighed against
disturbance of the critical slope – are these meant to be any public benefit or only environmental public benefits.
Review of prior decisions over the last several years indicates that the Commission and Council have relied on a
broad definition of public benefits and the proposed draft language will reflect that understanding.

Floodplain Overlay – Staff presented a number of ideas for strengthening the development in the Floodplain
Overlay rules at the January 24 Planning Commission work session. In the first step, staff is proposing
consideration of the following changes:


    1. Require City review and approval for any proposed changes to the Floodplain maps prior to submittals to
        FEMA.
    2. Require that the first habitable floor of a building be elevated at least two feet over the base flood elevation
        rather than the current one-foot requirement.
    3. Require a special use permit for development within the floodplain overlay district.

Climate/Green Design – In the current zoning ordinance draft, staff is looking for opportunities to reduce the barriers
to green design methods. For example, solar shade devices over windows are exempt from setback requirements.

Trees – The draft zoning ordinance will retain the existing language regarding tree protection, which is again the
maximum allowed under State law.

Arlington County has a tree protection ordinance that requires County authorization to cut or remove a publicly
owned tree, including street trees. Where the County authorizes a tree to be removed, the applicant must replace
the tree or pay a replacement fee. Charlottesville could consider incorporating similar language into the Tree
Conservation section of Chapter 18 of the City Code as a short-term action.

Step 2 – Environmental Program Redesign

Charlottesville has been a leader in the State relative to its environmental policies and the Comprehensive Plan
continues that position. The proposed second step of a review and update of the City’s environmental regulations
would engage a consultant team to work closely with City staff to identify improvements to the City’s environmental
regulations towards the goals identified on the first page of this memo. The project would require review of the
City’s authority under state law, assessment of the current regulatory system, analysis and mapping of the City’s
environmental assets, community engagement through a steering committee and the general public, and drafting of
new ordinances.

Ideas to consider in this process:


    1. Stream Buffers – Expanding the City’s stream buffer program to protect natural vegetated areas along
       waterways and have stricter stormwater management requirements where natural buffer areas no longer
       exist.
    2. Floodplain – Consider using a City defined floodplain area based on the 2005 floodplain maps rather than
       the area currently designated by FEMA and decrease allowable floodplain encroachments (widen the
       floodway).
    3. Green Design – Create a requirement for including green design practices in developments over a set size.
       The requirements would be based on a menu of potential green design practices.



Alignment with City Council's Vision and Strategic Plan
This report aligns with Goal 3: A Beautiful and Sustainable Natural and Built Environment and
specifically with objectives 3.1 (robust and context sensitive planning) and 3.4 (responsible stewards
of natural resources).

Community Engagement

Budgetary Impact

Recommendation

Alternatives

Attachments
None