                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

AUTHORIZATION FOR MORE STRINGENT ORDINANCES (§ 62.1-44.15:65)

A. As part of a VESCP, a locality is authorized to adopt more stringent soil
erosion and sediment control ordinances than those necessary to ensure
compliance with the Board&#8217;s regulations, provided that the more stringent
ordinances are based upon factual findings of local or regional comprehensive
watershed management studies or findings developed through the implementation of
a locally adopted watershed management study and are determined by the locality
to be necessary to prevent any further degradation to water resources, to
address total maximum daily load requirements, to protect exceptional state
waters, or to address specific existing water pollution including nutrient and
sediment loadings, stream channel erosion, depleted groundwater resources, or
excessive localized flooding within the watershed and that prior to adopting
more stringent ordinances, a public hearing is held. Notice of such hearing
shall be given by publication once a week for two consecutive weeks in a
newspaper of general circulation in the locality seeking to adopt the ordinance,
with the first publication appearing no more than 14 days before the hearing.
The VESCP authority shall report to the Board when more stringent erosion and
sediment control ordinances are determined to be necessary pursuant to this
section. This process shall not be required when a VESCP authority chooses to
reduce the threshold for regulating land-disturbing activities to a smaller area
of disturbed land pursuant to &#xA7; 62.1-44.15:55. This section shall not be
construed to authorize any VESCP authority to impose any more stringent
ordinances for land-disturbance review and approval than those specified in
&#xA7; 62.1-44.15:55.

B. Any provisions of an erosion and sediment control program in existence before
July 1, 2012, that contains more stringent provisions than this article shall be
exempt from the analysis requirements of subsection A.

HISTORY: 1973, c. 486, § 21-89.12; 1988, c. 891, § 10.1-570; 2012, cc. 785,
819; 2013, cc. 756, 793; 2023, cc. 506, 507.