Council endorses Resilient Hampton projects, agrees to join American Flood Coalition and adopt regional sea‑level standards

Community Development Director Terry O’Neil gave a detailed update on the Resilient Hampton initiative and asked council to approve two resolutions: one joining the American Flood Coalition and another endorsing regional sea‑level rise projections to guide city planning. O'Neil described a four‑part strategy—slow, store, redirect, and adapt—focused on the Newmarket Creek Basin and said staff proposed near‑term pilots including a transverse‑ditch pilot near Forest Elementary, a greenway/blueway concept, parking‑lot retrofits at the Crossroads site (approx. 1,200 spaces) and a parcel grant program for property‑scale resilience measures. "We potentially in this area could have a greenway and a blueway that also deals with flooding and providing recreational assets," O'Neil said as part of the conceptual overview.

O'Neil said the city is exploring partnerships (including NASA Langley for predictive flood modeling) and funding options such as a modest stormwater fee (an additional $1/month could raise roughly $1 million/year and enable $12–13 million in bonding in FY20). Council members asked about design approaches to protect school routes and opportunities for design competitions; council then approved the two resolutions in separate votes.