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Commission delays public hearing on Chesapeake Bay preservation ordinance updates pending DEQ review
Summary
Lancaster County staff presented required updates to the county’s Chesapeake Bay preservation ordinance to comply with changes to Virginia law; commissioners asked staff to obtain DEQ liaison review before sending the draft to public hearing and agreed to table the item until next month.
Lancaster County planning staff reviewed required updates to the county’s Chesapeake Bay preservation ordinance during the October 2025 Planning Commission meeting and said they will seek review from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) liaison before scheduling a public hearing.
County planner Crystal Hall told commissioners that DEQ has identified mandatory changes that must be incorporated into the county’s Part 4 Chesapeake Bay preservation ordinance. Hall said the model ordinance provided by DEQ uses double-underlined text to show required changes and that staff included additional surrounding text so the revised sections would be coherent. Hall said the most substantive new requirement is a resiliency assessment that DEQ expects counties to add.
Hall recommended that staff send the draft to the DEQ liaison for review before setting a public hearing. Commissioners agreed and asked staff to return with a version that incorporated any DEQ comments. One commissioner thanked staff for making the draft easy to read and noted the amount of work involved. The commission agreed to table the item until next month while staff coordinates with DEQ.
What’s next: staff will send the draft ordinance language to the DEQ liaison for review, update the draft as needed, and return the item for a public hearing at a future meeting.
