House kills bill aimed at climate planning in local government

A House subcommittee voted 5-4 along party lines to table a bill that would require climate resilience to be included as part of strategic plans made by local governments.

The bill, HB 1746, introduced by Del. Rodney Willett, D-Henrico, was reviewed during the Counties, Cities and Towns subcommittee meeting on Friday.

“All this bill does is add climate resilience as a list of things that the planning districts need to look at in their strategic planning,” Willett said in the meeting. “What we have heard from local governments is that a lot of them are doing it already and that is the good news.”

During the meeting, Del. Mike Cherry, R-Colonial Heights, said he thinks this would create a “duplicative work” on the planning commission and voted to table the bill.

“As you have said, it is already being done most of the time,” he said in the meeting.

The bill would have amended and reenacted 15.2-4209 of the Code of Virginia. It would have required a comprehensive approach to tackling climate change, Willett said.

“This is a statewide issue,” he said. “Everyone needs to be thinking about this, looking at these issues and thinking of ‘what can we do to deal with what is now, unfortunately, an inevitable outcome of climate change and these impacts?’”

Along with Cherry, Delegates. Joseph McNamara, R-Roanoke, John Avoli, R-Staunton, Jason Ballard, R-Pearisburg and Phillip Scott, R-Spotsylvania, voted to table the bill during the subcommittee meeting.

There are many areas in Virginia that are already considering climate resilience, and this was codifying something that was a common practice, Willett said.

“No one is immune to the impacts,” he said. “That may have been true a decade ago or less, but not anymore. We’re all vulnerable.”

Willett said he was really focused on the Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay area because of the flooding that occurs there.

“What happens now is that we get these extraordinary once-in-1000-year rain events in southwest Virginia, and you get terrible flooding there and actually, huge loss of life and loss of property,” he said. “So it has really become a statewide problem and that’s really the impetus for the bill.”

During the subcommittee meeting, Willett described the bill as a “parallel effort” to HB 1634, proposed by Del. David Bulova, D-Fairfax. HB 1634 encourages localities to consider comprehensive planning strategies to address resilience, Bulova said during the meeting.

The subcommittee voted unanimously to report HB 1634 with amendments on Friday.

Virginia has become a leader in resilience planning, Bulova said during the meeting.

“It doesn’t require any particular approach,” Bulova said in the meeting, “just make sure that this is pinging localities to say, ‘Hey these are really important factors to consider when you are developing your comprehensive plans.’”

The Counties, Cities and Towns subcommittee will meet again at 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 10.