The City of Virginia Beach adopted the CBPAO on January 1, 1991. This ordinance affects all property in Virginia Beach that drains into the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, approximately the northern one-third of the City.
In addition, the CBPAO is an effort to enhance the water quality by protecting environmentally-sensitive areas such as buffers adjacent to waterways, tidal shores, and wetlands, as well as highly erodible soils. These sensitive areas, called Resource Protection Areas (RPAs), are closest to the shorelines that have an intrinsic water quality value or are sensitive to the impact of development. All other lands in the watershed are called Resource Management Areas (RMAs). The RMA is intended to protect the integrity of the RPA and extends from the RPA boundary outward to the watershed boundary limit.
Further information regarding the CBPAO can be found in Appendix F of the Virginia Beach City Code.
Application Filing Deadline
The Deadline for filing
an application to be heard by the CBPA Board is prior to the 1st
of each month to be heard at the following month’s hearing if the
application is complete.
Application Filing Fees
The filing fees must be made payable to the City Treasurer.
*The costs of the public notice sign(s), legal advertisements in the Virginia-Pilot/Beacon, and the postage for mailing of requirement notices to property owners adjacent to the subject site is required in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Most recently notification fees were variable and based on the number of signs required, number of adjacent property owners and the amount of text in the legal notice and could not be assessed and paid until after the application fee was paid. Effective October 1, 2017, a flat fee for the CBPA public notice will be implemented and will be paid at the same time as the Board application fee.
CBPA Meeting Times & Location
Currently, the Chesapeake Bay
Preservation Area (CBPA) Board holds a monthly CBPA Board public hearing at the
Virginia Beach Convention Center, 1000 19th Street, Virginia Beach,
VA, to hear applications for variances to the CBPA Ordinance. An informal
session to brief the CBPA Board is held at 9:00 a.m. at the same location.
During the informal session, Staff briefs the CBPA Board on agenda items. For
specific meeting dates, please refer to the Agendas & Minutes tab below for
the appropriate year.