city of Richmond

Environmentally Sensitive Areas Update  (In progress)

DHC staff and the City of Richmond are working together to update their Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) and associated policy. This project incorporates new scientific knowledge, best management practices, current datasets and information collected through a combination of desktop review, geospatial analysis, and fieldwork to ground truth and provide additional detail. An integral part of this update will be to better align the policy with other strategies developed by the City, including the Ecological Network Management Strategy. This work will also address Richmond’s desire to explore new models for QEP reporting throughout the ESA development permitting process. The report will allow the City to better enforce the ESA DPA as a tool to regulate the protection of the natural environment, its ecosystem functions, and biological diversity during development.