Land use planning, at its best, is focused on providing healthy, high quality communities for the citizens of Hampton Roads. Well-planned communities are places where people want to live and where businesses want to locate. As scientific understanding of man’s interaction with the environment has improved, the sophistication of land use planning has advanced significantly. Computer-based mapping tools and detailed satellite imagery combined with advances in landscape ecology have fostered the ability to plan open space networks that meet multiple land use planning objectives. These open space networks have the potential to save many high value natural attributes while simultaneously accommodating well-planned development. This approach to open space planning is known as “green infrastructure”.

Information on several green infrastructure initiatives in Hampton Roads is available below: The first link is a summary report on green infrastructure work underway within the region. The second link is a set of presentations from the September 14, 2006 green infrastructure workshop held at the HRPDC. The third link is a technical report on the analytic methods used in the creation of a regional conservation corridor network and associated GIS data. The fourth link is a set of presentations from the February 29, 2008 Compatible Land Use Planning workshop. This workshop featured presentations and discussion of opportunities to buffer the region’s military facilities through green infrastructure planning.

Green Infrastructure Summary Report

Green Infrastructure Workshops

Conservation Corridor Study

Compatible Land Use Planning Workshops