After months of deliberation over cost and equity, City Council approved an agreement Tuesday to partner with the federal government to build floodwalls and other storm protections around Norfolk.
“This is a huge issues for the city in so many different ways,” said Councilwoman Andria McClellan, a proponent of the plan. “This project will help us deal with the existential threat of these coastal storms.”
The council unanimously approved three resolutions related to the $2.6 billion floodwall plan. The first resolution approved the project partnership agreement between the city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which lays out the phases of the Coastal Storm Risk Management Project and the city and federal government’s financial obligations.
The project will see 8 miles of new or extended floodwalls built around downtown Norfolk neighborhoods over the next 10 years, as well as surge barriers and pump stations in other neighborhoods.
A second resolution responded to residents’ concerns about southside neighborhoods being excluded from structural flood protections. The protections proposed instead for Berkley, Campostella and Campostella Heights, located across the river from downtown Norfolk, include raised homes and filled basements for the historically Black neighborhoods.
The resolution adopted Tuesday commits the council to reassess the design and construction of protections for the area. While changes are not guaranteed, the Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to ask the federal government to modify the way it calculates if structural flood protection measures could be used in the southside community.
Residents of the southside stood in support of the resolution.
“We consider resolution one a step in the right direction towards the Army Corps of Engineers aligning with President Joe Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, an initiative that seeks to address environmental injustice,” said Lawrence Brown, president of the Campostella Heights Civic League.
The Justice40 Initiative is an executive order intended to ensure 40% of benefits from federal investments into environmental projects go to marginalized communities that disproportionately bear the burden of climate change or pollution. The reassessment of southside neighborhoods would take into account factors like environmental justice as a basis for inclusion in structural protections, rather than a cost-benefit analysis that could exclude due to the inherited effects of redlining and racial segregation.
A third resolution, introduced to the agenda for the first time Tuesday, addressed remaining cost concerns. Of the $2.6 billion project, the city is obligated to cover 35%, or $931 million. The city committed to obtaining agreement from the state to fund half of the city’s share of the project.
Some residents representing environmental groups spoke out against the impact the project could have on surrounding ecosystems and highlighted flood risks other than catastrophic storm surges.
“I’m here tonight to reluctantly oppose this resolution,” said William Stiles, executive director of the nonprofit Wetlands Watch. Stiles cited inadequate water quality studies and flooding from rainfall or sea level rise that he said the project would not address.
Christy Everett of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation highlighted the recovering oyster population and blue crab populations in the Lafayette River. She also said the project could exacerbate the risk of harmful algal blooms in the river.
McClellan thanked conservationists for advocating for water quality and other flooding issues.
“We are indeed going to do all of the appropriate water quality projects,” McClellan said. “We need to have a more comprehensive strategy and perspective in the city that deals with not only stormwater, but with tidal planning, with transportation and with emergency management.”
Cianna Morales, 757-957-1304, cianna.morales@virginiamedia.com
