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Planning commission recommends design approval for CSRM Phase 1 floodwall with ARB conditions
Summary
The commission recommended approval of design plans for phase 1a of the CSRM floodwall between Berkeley Bridge and Campus Drive, endorsing ARB conditions on color, texture pattern and lighting and requiring pump station and final texture reviews by the Architectural Review Board.
The City of Norfolk Planning Commission on June 23 recommended approval of design review materials for phase 1a of the Chesapeake Storm Risk Management (CSRM) floodwall project, following Architectural Review Board input and conditions on finish, color and lighting.
Planning staff presented the CSRM phase 1a package, describing a series of concrete flood walls, a levee, a living shoreline and vehicular floodgates extending between the Berkeley Bridge area and the Campus Avenue interchange. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the applicant for the federal project design review materials.
The Architectural Review Board reviewed the project twice in June and recommended approval on a vote of 8–1 with conditions. The ARB asked the Corps to study a wall pattern that breaks the wall’s massing and recommended “pattern D” to provide additional relief along the wall’s length. The ARB also required that final wall texture be returned to the ARB for review and that the final design for pump stations planned near Ferry Landing and just east of the railroad bridge return to the ARB prior to construction.
The ARB also recommended that all floodgates be painted Nauticus blue to match the floodgate at the Nauticus museum, “primarily for signaling purposes,” and asked for a maximum lighting color temperature of 2,700 Kelvin along the Elizabeth River Trail within phase 1a.
At the commission hearing the staff presenter reiterated the ARB conditions and the project scope. Commissioners then voted to recommend approval as presented; the motion carried unanimously on the roll call.
The commission’s recommendation is advisory; the project remains subject to federal review, construction permitting, and the ARB’s required return reviews of final textures, pump station designs and signage.
