COMMISSION ACTIONS JULY 2002

JULY 2002 COMMISSION ACTIONS

Agenda Items for the July 23, 2002 Commission meeting are listed below with the Commission's actions in bold.

1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - June 18, 2002 and July 11, 2002. The Commission approved the minutes as circulated.

2. PERMITS (Projects over $50,000 with no objections and with staff recommendation for approval). The Commission voted, 8-0, to approve all the permit requests including the staff recommendations.

3. LEE ANDERSON, #99-2156, requested authorization to install 60 linear feet and bulkhead and 58 linear feet of return walls on his property situated along the Chesapeake Bay in the City of Hampton. Coastal Primary Sand Dune and Beach Permit required. The Commission voted, 8-0, to approve the permit including the bulkhead area to the utility lines.

4. REGATTA POINT YACHT CLUB, #01-2177, requests authorization to install fuel pumps and associated fuel lines to a previously authorized floating pier at their marina facility located near the mouth of Broad Creek in Middlesex County. Several nearby property owners protest the project. The applicant withdrew the application prior to the meeting.

5. NORTHWEST BRANCH OF TANNERS CREEK, L.L.C., #02-0089, requests authorization to dredge, by clamshell method, 8,620 cubic yards of State-owned subaqueous bottom in a 2,900-foot long by 30-foot wide channel with a 950-foot long by 30-foot wide spur channel to maximum depths of minus four (-4) feet at mean low water adjacent to their property situated along the Northwest Branch of Tanners Creek in the City of Norfolk. The material will be placed at Craney Island. The project is protested by an adjoining property owner and a concerned citizen. The Commission voted, 8-0, to approve the permit and asked that the City of Norfolk consider establishing a no wake zone in the Northwest Branch of Tanners Creek.

6. E. L. BOYCE, #02-0952, requests authorization to extend an existing pier 40 feet channelward and construct a 42-foot by 18-foot open-sided boathouse at the channelward end of the pier situated along Elmington Creek in Gloucester County. An adjacent property owner protests the project. The Commission voted, 7-0, to approve the permit including a 16-foot L-head pier instead of the 12-foot to which Mr. Boyce had originally agreed.

7. AMHERST CO. RECREATION AND PARKS DEPARTMENT, #01-1753, requests authorization to convert two existing, abandoned Virginia Blue Ridge Railway bridges which span the Tye River and the Piney River into foot bridges. The crossings are being retrofitted as part of a seven-mile trail through portions of Amherst and Nelson Counties. An adjacent property owner protests the Tye River crossing. The Commission voted, 8-0, to approve the permit.

8. DONNA W. HOWLETT, #02-1184, requests authorization to install up to 50 linear feet of stone riprap revetment landward of mean low water at her property situated along Wathall Channel of the Appomattox River in Chesterfield County. Wetlands Permit required. The Commission voted, 8-0, to approve the permit.

9. WAYNE K. TAYLOR, #01-2142. Restoration Hearing related to placement of 150 feet of concrete panel bulkhead 7-10 feet channelward of an existing metal sheet bulkhead and the backfilling of the area between the two bulkheads within the intertidal area of the applicants property situated along the Appomattox River in Prince George County. The Commission voted, 8-0, to continue the Restoration Hearing until consideration is given to Mr. Taylor's after-the-fact permit application.

10. TABBS CREEK CIVIC ASSOCIATION, #95-1672, requests an after-the-fact permit modification to dredge an additional 48 cubic yards of State-owned subaqueous material and install two (2) temporary mooring piles in order to prepare an unauthorized off-load area associated with a current maintenance dredging permit for a channel into the mouth of Tabbs Creek in Lancaster County. The Commission voted, 8-0, to approve the permit the after-the-fact permit, with related royalties and a civil charge of $1,800 each on the Tabbs Creek Civic Association and Mama's Potomac Dredging, L.C. The dredging company was given 45 days to pay its charge.

11. STEVE PALMER, #02-0689, requests authorization to retain an 11-foot by 12-foot storage shed located at the channelward end of a private, non-commercial pier located along West Landing Creek in Mathews County. Two residents protest the project in the vicinity. The Commission voted, 8-0 to continue the public hearing until its October 23 meeting.

12. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Tony Armstrong, commercial waterman, asked the Commission to extend the season for taking clams from condemned areas in lower Hampton Roads from August 15 to August 31 and to open for 30 days the Hampton Flats area for the taking of clams during September. The Commission voted, 8-0, in an emergency regulation to extend the season for the requested duration and staff will report next month on the Hampton Flats proposal as well as the concern about the possible elimination of a productive clam grounds off Norfolk International Terminal in the Elizabeth River. Henry Lane Hull, Associate Member, requested that the Commission ask the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to report at the August meeting regarding dangerous foreign snakehead fish that has been found in a lake in Maryland and in seven other states. Since the fish is a fresh-water species, staff will also contact the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries for an update.

13. RECOMMENDATIONS of the Recreational Fishing Advisory Board and the Commercial Fishing Advisory Board. The Commission voted, 7-0, to approve partial funding for the Messick Point Boat Ramp in Poquoson and the Glebe Point Fishing Pier improvements in Northumberland County. The Commission voted, 5-1, to approve staff's request allocate $60,000 from the Saltwater Recreational Fishing Development Fund and $40,000 from the Marine Improvement Fund to be used to match designated Wallop-Breaux Grant funds. The Virginia Recreational Fishing Advisory Board voted unanimously to support the $60,000 allocation, while the Virginia Commercial Fishing Advisory Board voted unanimously to support only $10,000 of the $40,000 request. Considering the state's funding problems and the reduction in the agency's budget for 2002-2003, there are no other places available to obtain money for the federal 3 to 1 match. A loss of $30,000 would result in a federal loss of an additional $90,000.

14. PUBLIC HEARING: Proposed amendments to Regulation 4 VAC 20-610-10 et seq., "Pertaining to Commercial Fishing and Mandatory Harvest Reporting," requiring purse seine vessels to submit Captain's Daily Fishing Reports. The Commission voted, 7-0, to approve the regulation amendment.

15. PUBLIC HEARING: Proposed amendments to Regulation 4 VAC 20-670-30 clarifying provisions pertaining to recreational crabbing. The Commission voted, 6-1, to approve the regulation amendment for recreational crabbers removing the 8-hour workday requirement and the crab potting prohibition in the crab sanctuary in the lower bay established by the Code of Virginia. Staff said it was not intended in any public hearing advertisements that the 8-hour workday applies to recreational crabbers, nor did the Virginia General Assembly intend the crab sanctuary to apply to recreational crabbers.


DATE OF NEXT COMMISSION MEETING: AUGUST 27, 2002

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