Vision of the Future: Developing a Water Quality Master Plan to advance the City of Hampton's Downtown Economic Goals

The City of Hampton (City) recently finalized a Downtown Hampton Master Plan to guide future growth and enhancement of its downtown area. The plan includes improved street networks, additional green space, new housing, and commercial space. A key goal of the plan is to improve connections between the core downtown and the waterfront. Under Virginia stormwater regulations, implementation of the Downtown Master Plan will require reductions in pollutant loading to surrounding the water bodies such as the Hampton River and Chesapeake Bay. In support of this plan, the City also developed a Downtown Water Quality Master Plan to support their Downtown Master Plan development. The overall goal of the Water Quality Plan is to provide a pathway for the City to achieve pollutant reduction requirements and advance other City initiatives as the Downtown Hampton Master Plan becomes a reality. In accordance with Virginia's stormwater regulations (9VAC25-870-63), each redevelopment in the downtown area will require a 20% net reduction in pollutant (phosphorus) loading to the Hampton River and Chesapeake Bay, relative to the pre-redevelopment loading. The City intends to achieve this requirement by implementing water quality projects throughout the Downtown Hampton area. To select these sites, a project selection framework was developed to advance each of the City's goals including Resilient Hampton initiatives and increasing greenspace in the area. This presentation will discuss the development of the site selection framework, conceptualization of each stormwater treatment facility, and the final results of the study. Attendees will gain an understanding of stormwater treatment, site selection techniques, and insights into urban stormwater design.