Editor, Gazette-Journal:
The Gloucester Board of Supervisors decided last fall at its Oct. 4, 2016 meeting to reduce the Resource Management Area from full county protection to something less. They submitted a proposed ordinance to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. After requests for additional information and discussion with the county, Virginia’s DEQ recently sent a letter to advise the supervisors that the proposed ordinance would not be approved as written. The supervisors discussed this matter at its June 6, 2017 meeting, and decided to continue the discussion at the July 5 meeting to reduce the RMA.
The Chesapeake Bay Protection Act is a state law that helps protect the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries from nonpoint source pollution arising from land use practices. As mandated by the CBPA, Gloucester County established a Resource Protection Area 100 feet landward of waterways.  This is where the most stringent land use rules apply, and it is unaffecte...