NATIONAL
ESTUARY
PROGRAM
MUNICIPALITIES UNITING TO LEARN, GROW TOGETHER &EPA
The Maryland Coastal Bays Program has undertaken a regional planning effort to unite Eastern Shore counties in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Since
2005, the Coastal Bays Program has been working with Sussex (DE), Worcester (MD), Accomack (VA), and Northampton (VA) counties to take a look at the
shore from a regional basis and to help states and counties learn from one another. In December 2007, this work culminated in build-out scenarios, which
planning and zoning professionals fashioned to examine what their counties would look like when completely built out. The workshops, attended by more
than 150 residents, showed what is allowable in current planning and zoning laws in each county.
THE NATIONAL ESTUARY PROGRAM IN ACTION
Maryland Coastal Bays Program
What came out of the efforts,
called the Delmarva Atlantic Wa-
tershed Network or DAWN, was
the sobering fact that in just a
few decades, with current laws,
not much would be left of the
Eastern Shore's farms and for-
ests. Easily recognizable in the
work was Maryland's ascension
to a planning paragon. With
strong agricultural zoning, and a
comprehensive plan that keeps
most new growth out of forests,
wetlands, and floodplains and
adjacent to existing infrastruc-
ture, the state serves as an ideal
model to follow. At build-out,
Worcester County, Md., should
have less than 80,000 full-time
residents, a little more than twice
the current population. In stark
contrast, Sussex County, Dela-
ware's 500,000 acres have no
agricultural zoning. At the per-
mitted two lots per acre and af-
ter extracting wetlands, built
lands, and protected lands, the
county is facing a build-out of
around two million residents
sprawled across the county. The
number is more than 10 times
its current population of 184,000.
At its current pace, the county
will lose close to 80 percent of
its forestland, 80 percent of its
agricultural land, and is looking
at a four-fold increase in
nutrients over much of the
western and northern parts of
the county.
Things are changing for the bet-
ter on the eastern shore of Vir-
ginia. The newly proposed com-
prehensive plan in Accomack
County and the proposed zoning
change in Northampton repre-
sent a giant leap forward for
those two shore gems. At build-
out, both counties combined are
projected at 100,000 people
from 44,000 today. Like Worces-
ter, Virginia's plans aim to direct
residents around existing infra-
structure and away from sensi-
tive areas.
In June, both Virginia counties
held a workshop as part of the
DAWN effort to show residents
how the new plans would affect
their counties' water quality and
farms and forests versus what
would happen if nothing chang-
es. The workshop started with
an overview of the effects of im-
pervious surfaces on water qual-
ity. Northampton County then
compared its old zoning plan
with its proposed revision and
Accomack weighed its proposed
plan against its current one.
Changes in nutrient inputs, land
EFFECTIVE
EFFICIENT
ADAPTIVE
COLLABORATIVE
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Existing Households
DAWN
Buildout Households
DAWN
consumption, population, and
even school enrollment were
measured and shown graphi-
cally. In both cases the new pro-
posals showed a significant ad-
vancement in planning along
with equally significant conser-
vation of natural resources.
In Sussex County, DAWN under-
took a massive campaign to ed-
ucate the public about the coun-
ty's shortcomings. The Sussex
Heart and Soul campaign asked
county residents to send photos
of the things that make Sussex
County the place they want to
live. This work culminated in an
early summer workshop to show
how the changes in landscape
mesh with what its residents de-
sire and to contemplate alterna-
tives. The forward-thinking work
in Worcester, Accomack, and
Northampton counties has also
allowed planning professionals
in Sussex to point to these neigh-
bors when showing elected offi-
cials what is possible on the
peninsula. The Coastal Bays Pro-
gram took on this work mainly
because its Chincoteague, Isle of
Wight, and Assawoman Bay wa-
tersheds extend into surround-
ing states. But the work has
taken on more than a water
quality component with the data
from the DAWN work and has
increased the interest of resi-
dents who think the shore's leg-
acy should be preserved. The
work shows that historically,
people seldom get what they
want in planning. Through this
effort, these four counties are
working together to change that
tendency.
Visit www.mdcoastalbays.org
to learn more about this and
other MCBP efforts.
EPA's National Estuary Program
(NEP) is a unique and successful
coastal watershed-based program
established in 1987 under the
Clean Water Act Amendments.
The NEP involves the public and
collaborates with partners to pro-
tect, restore, and maintain the wa-
ter quality and ecological integrity
of 28 estuaries of national signifi-
cance located in 18 coastal states
and Puerto Rico,
For more information about the
NEP go to www.epa.gov/owow/
estuaries.
The NEP: Implementing the Clean Water Act in ways that are Effective, Efficient, Adaptive, and Collaborative.
EPA-842F09001
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