We appreciate and value the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR) efforts to outline a Community Outreach and Engagement Plan (COEP) for flood protection and coastal resiliency planning. The “whole community” approach outlined provides a useful, high-level overview of the Department’s intentions.
In particular, the City of Hampton appreciates DCR’s commitment to “leverage partnerships” and to “align and integrate COEP process with existing federal, state, and local programs to provide additional resources and synergies.” We request that DCR make explicit its intent to collaborate with local governments’ existing flood protection and resiliency planning efforts in this document.
Many Virginia localities have already conducted local whole community planning for flood protection and coastal resiliency. Some have established plans, programs, and initiatives – including robust community outreach and engagement strategies – which are already advancing critical efforts to document and respond to flood risks. We respectfully request that this plan acknowledge these efforts and its intentions to continue treating those programs as assets to addressing the challenges of flooding statewide.
The City of Hampton recognizes specific challenges and opportunities related to these planning efforts that can be addressed through alignment and integration between state and local planning efforts to advance the COEP’s goals:
Thank you for the opportunity to review and provide comment on this plan.