Welcome to Greening Chesapeake

Kicking off this new blog for 2024 to work on the goal to green Chesapeake by increasing natural area - green spaces and blueways - across the City. Steps include protecting existing tree canopy, encouraging protection of natural areas, and planting trees and native plants across the City on public, institutional, commercial, and residential properties.

Other key tenants to building a greener city include connectivity - enabling people to reach destinations safely by foot, bicycle, and public transit, not just automobiles - and adopting sustainable practices.

Stay tuned for information about upcoming events, actions, and information related to Greening Chesapeake.

Comments

Thoughts on Draft Chesapeake Trails and Connectivity Plan

The draft Chesapeake Trails and Connectivity Plan offers a great opportunity to layout a figurative and literal roadmap on improving walkability and connectivity in the City of Chesapeake, but it needs to go into more detail on how to realistically implement the proposed trail network and provide residents and visitors with tangible improvements in the near term, i.e. in the next 1 to 3 years, not just a vision for an undefined future date. The draft Plan finds that today in Chesapeake, “the active transportation network is disjointed and lacks accessibility. With public transit available exclusively in the north of the City, transportation options are often limited for residents and visitors traveling to different parts of the City. The many open spaces can be difficult to reach and in many cases are not easily accessible on foot or by bike.” This also extends to being able to reach schools, libraries, community centers, places of worship, doctor’s offices, restaurants, shopping c

Support Tree Bills in General Assembly

Update 2: Urge Governor Youngkin to sign HB529 and HB1100 into law to ensure our community is able to conserve and plant more trees that will benefit the health of all Virginians! Contact him today - https://p2a.co/dT5K6jN Update: Both of these bills have been passed by the House and Senate and are now heading for the Governor's desk for signature. Stay tuned for any Action Alerts asking folks to contact the Governor to urge him to sign these bills. There are several bills in the General Assembly that would give the City of Chesapeake the option to do more to protect trees and restore tree canopy during development. Current state law limits how much Chesapeake can require of developers during construction. HB 1100 would enable all counties, cities, and towns in Virginia to adopt tree conservation ordinances to conserve healthy mature trees during construction projects. HB 529 would increase how much canopy must be replaced when trees are cut down during development. B

CBPA proposed change details

April 23 Public Hearing Package with rationale for the proposed changes - https://www.cityofchesapeake.net/DocumentCenter/View/18260/04-23-24-Item-7_PLANNING_CBPA Consideration of the change was Continued (deferred) to the end of June. Below the proposed CBPA changes provided by Chesapeake Planning Department were compared against National Wetlands Inventory maps - https://fwsprimary.wim.usgs.gov/wetlands/apps/wetlands-mapper/ 1. Fernwood Farms/Riverwalk Areas Proposed for removal (red), addition (dark green) National Wetlands Inventory City Drainage Map https://www.cityofchesapeake.net/DocumentCenter/View/4216/Figures-PDF Background on Interrupted and Disconnected Wetlands for CBPA Guidance Documents https://www.deq.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/22569/638430806129970000 Google Earth 4/8/1990 2. Great Bridge Blvd Areas proposed for removal (red) National Wetlands Inventory Close-up 3. Oakbrooke (East of Arboretum) Areas proposed for removal (red)/addition (dark green) Nat

Greening Chesapeake

Search This Blog