Virginia Administrative Code › Title 4 - CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES › Agency 20 - MARINE RESOURCES COMMISSION › Chapter 440 - COASTAL PRIMARY SAND DUNE/BEACHES GUIDELINES: BARRIER ISLAND POLICY › Section 4VAC20-440-10 - Barrier island policy

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
A.
				Introduction.
1. Definitions. For the purpose
				of this chapter, the definitions contained within § 62.1-13.22 of the Code
				of Virginia apply. In addition, the following words and terms when used in this
				chapter, shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates
				otherwise:
"Barrier islands" means elongated narrow landforms consisting
				  largely of unconsolidated and shifting sand, fronted on one side by the ocean
				  and on the other by a bay or marshland which separates them from the
				  mainland.
"Dune crest" means the highest elevation of the coastal
				  primary sand dune on the lot as determined in consultation with the Virginia
				  Institute of Marine Science.
"Local 100-year long-term recession rate" means calculating
				  the average shoreline recession over fixed one-mile intervals averaged over the
				  period between surveys of 100 years or more.
2. Background. Barrier islands are transient
				landforms. Their dynamic and unstable nature poses significant risk to life and
				property located there. Scientific evidence placed before the Marine Resources
				Commission supports a finding that some of Virginia's barrier islands,
				including Cedar Island, are more fragile, more unstable and pose even greater
				risk to life and property than many other coastal barriers, due to their
				sand-deficient character. In addition, barrier islands are themselves
				significant natural resources that contain a number of specific features
				(coastal primary sand dunes, wetlands, and vast stretches of state-owned sandy
				beaches) including natural heritage resources and threatened or endangered
				species that are recognized by the General Assembly for their natural value and
				are protected by law. This policy applies to the barrier island systems on the
				seaside of the Virginia portion of the southern Delmarva peninsula, and is not
				intended to cover military activities essential to national security, or the
				construction, operation, maintenance or rehabilitation of coast guard
				facilities or access to them. This exclusion does not obviate compliance with
				other applicable provisions of the Coastal Primary Sand Dune Protection Act.
Survival of these barrier islands often depends on the
				  ability of sand to wash across the island naturally in concert with the local
				  wind and wave climate. The sand is then protected from loss offshore and
				  provides a means of perpetuating the island, albeit in a more landward
				  location. Activities which adversely affect this interaction can have an
				  extremely detrimental impact on the island as well as the structure, form and
				  function of its dune system. The artificial accumulation of sand along the
				  oceanside of an island can make it more susceptible to loss offshore during a
				  storm. Once such a loss occurs, the sand then becomes unavailable for washover
				  and for the continued landward migration of the island. Houses, sand fences and
				  similar structures can also alter wind patterns; this alteration impedes the
				  wind transport of sand across the island. Accumulations adjacent to these
				  impediments can be lost offshore as the shoreline continues to recede, leading
				  to an increased rate of recession and a narrowing of the island. In addition,
				  many of the Commonwealth's rarest species depend on the continuation of natural
				  processes that currently exist on barrier islands. Consequently they are
				  threatened by any interference with those processes. The implementation of the
				  policies and guidelines set forth in this chapter will support a fuller
				  achievement of the purposes of the Virginia Natural Area Preserves Act (§
				  10.1-209 et seq. of the Code of Virginia), the Virginia Endangered Species Act
				  (§ 29.1-563 et seq. of the Code of Virginia) and the Virginia Endangered
				  Plant and Insect Species Act (§ 3.1-1020 et seq. of the Code of
				  Virginia).
Two of the main natural features of barrier islands are
				  natural dunes and washover areas, both of which are included in the statutory
				  definition of a coastal primary sand dune as a "mound of unconsolidated sandy
				  soil which is contiguous to mean high water, whose landward and lateral limits
				  are marked by a change in grade from 10% or greater to less than 10% and upon
				  any part of which is growing" certain designated plants as listed in §
				  62.1- 13.22 of the Code of Virginia. Given the particular combination of risks
				  to both natural values and life and property posed by development on barrier
				  islands, the commission finds it necessary and appropriate to establish a
				  policy and supplemental guidelines to assist landowners and decision makers
				  alike in shaping barrier island uses in a manner that preserves and protects
				  the values of coastal primary sand dunes as set forth by the General
				  Assembly.