A while ago, we reported on efforts to block a development in Northampton County, on Virginia's Northern Neck.  Wetlands Watch joined with local citizens and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in arguing against the project.

Our position was the development would disrupt the environment today and endanger the development's residents tomorrow, as the low lying land on Bluff Point got wetter and wetter due to sea level rise.  Why would anyone allow millions of dollars to be invested along a sinking shoreline? 

We also argued that the development would cost taxpayers plenty in subsidizing storm and flooding losses and eventually in having to "take back" the development when it was no longer livable. 

The basic issues are discussed in a new commentary in the Bay Journal, written by Tom Horton, the dean of Chesapeake Bay writers.

Unfortunately, we failed to stop the project rezoning.  The board of supervisors voted 4-1 to approve the project.

We will fight the permits needed for the project - to dredge a marina and destroy the wetlands.  But as we discuss elsewhere on this website, land-use decisions rule in the regulatory process - once the zoning is done, you're pretty much discussing how much the replacement wetlands will cost, rather than debating whether to destroy the original wetlands - something the courts are saying is OK by them.

Change is not easy, but at least the fight is gaining some attention on the regional/national level in the press.

We'll be watching this development in coming months/years to document if our predictions come true or not.  The case also begins to expose all the state and federal policies that encourage this continuation of outmoded developments - something I'll blog about in the near future.