Opportunities & Funding

The city is spending $567.5 million to implement its multi-phased flood protection program. This program includes design and construction of mitigation projects that will protect city homes and businesses, address storm water issues and recurrent flooding. The project includes development of drainage basins, marsh restoration, pump stations and barriers, and dredging.

This is a strategy – a road map – that the City of Virginia Beach has undertaken to develop strategies to respond to sea level rise and related increases in flooding.

The city of Hampton, rather than “fighting with water,” is transforming water from a threat to an asset. The city’s adaptation and resilience efforts are in an early, discovery phase. Potential projects include dune replenishment/ shoreline restoration at Buck roe Beach, raising roads near Long Creek and wetland restoration at Mill Creek.

The City of Hampton is elevating a half mile stretch of North Armistead Avenue between Findley Street and the bridge over New market Creek. It will be elevated 5.25 feet, making it a minimum of 7.5 feet above sea level. The project also includes retrofit water management infrastructure at Lake Hampton, which will increase its water storage capacity.

The city of Norfolk is using a $112M federal grant from the National Disaster Resilience Competition to improve flooding and public access to Ohio Creek. This work includes the Resilience Park, which connects the Grandy Village and Chesterfield Heights neighborhoods and has a flood berm, a restored tidal creek and wetland, and recreation spaces for Norfolk residents.

This department defines and communicates what a resilient Norfolk looks like, coordinates the work of the city and partners to build a vision of resilience, and builds a practice of experimentation where businesses can innovate and build the city’s economy.

In Norfolk, the USACE is investing nearly $400 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to increase community resilience to flooding. Funds will be used for the design and construction of storm surge barriers, levees and pump stations as part of a large-scale extension of the Downtown Norfolk Floodwall.

Joint Land Use Studies (JLUS) are developed by the community, the government, and the military to perform planning processes strategically. The goal is to ensure that all entities work together to create an environment where citizens, governments, and the military can preserve and protect public health, safety, and welfare.

The City of Portsmouth was awarded a $19.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) to revitalize the High Street Corridor. The project will convert a four-lane undivided road to a two-lane divided road section with a median to allow for road integration of vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users and will be a redevelopment catalyst for the Innovation Overlay District.

Newport News Master Plan for Stormwater, Floodplain and Resilience & Climate Change Management. Newport News is developing three separate but interrelated master plans for stormwater, floodplain and climate change & resilience management.

The City of Chesapeake includes the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River which provides access to the Chesapeake Bay and the Port of Virginia. The Industrial Waterfront Study will enable the city to understand current conditions, land use influences, preferred land uses and the range of adaptation strategies that can increase resilience of coastal and riverine areas and increase opportunities for economic development. The study will establish a framework to evaluate effectiveness and appropriateness of different adaptation and resilience approaches.

Funded by the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission, Fight the Flood connects property owners in the Middle Peninsula (Gloucester and Mathews Counties) with businesses that can help evaluate, design and build solutions to adapt and thrive with coastal flooding. Currently, funding is being used for dredging work and beach restoration, and design of multi-modal working waterfronts to combat flooding and other stressors on waterfront infrastructure.

The MPPDC provides various services to local governments and individuals. Their flood mitigation strategies help these groups with grant application assistance, management services for program implementation, land use planning services, and mapping.