Interagency Shoreline Management Consensus Document
There are concerns in the general public and regulatory and environmental advisory agencies regarding the apparent inconsistent and /or contradictory guidance offered to property owners regarding shoreline management in Virginia. There has been a growing interest among the agencies that manage, or otherwise have a role in shoreline management, to develop a Virginia perspective on the issue. This project to develop a consensus position from a VIMS perspective, with funding from the Virginia Coastal Program, may serve as the initiation of an effort to develop consensus guidance on shoreline management that integrates the issues and concerns extant in the various independent management programs in Virginia. Setting priorities for the preferred approaches to shoreline management in Virginia cannot be effective if developed in a vacuum. To be effective the effort needs to include consideration of a review of existing guidance and input from personnel representing other agencies that have a role in shoreline management. To develop the Virginia perspective representation should include the following core agencies: Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance and Shoreline Erosion Advisory Service, Virginia Marine Resources Commission, local governments and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. From both a narrow and broad perspective, the review needs to reflect both the literature produced by VIMS and others (codified guidance), and engage personnel from VIMS as well as other agencies. The review of existing guidance creates an opportunity to confirm the relevance of the information given current scientific understanding as well as "mining" the guidance for existing rationale regarding shoreline decision-making. And the inclusion of others in the shoreline management arena allows for the development of agreement in the proper approaches to shoreline management in Virginia. The first step in working on a consensus for Virginia requires that each involved group have, or develop their own consensus.