Wetlands bank projects worry Northampton Supervisors of County becoming mitigation Mecca

Heavy equipment moving a lot of dirt in a field just south of Exmore has raised the eyebrows of the Northampton Board of Supervisors, and a lengthy discussion on the matter took place at Tuesday’s work session.

The site was purchased by a development company, CBAY-VA, LLC, a company based out of Bellaire, Texas, to be used as a site to install “non-tidal wetlands” as a mitigation plan for a development elsewhere in the state where they destroyed wetlands.

“They took some of the highest land in the County, and decided to turn it from a productive 28 acre field into a non-productive wetland,” said Board Chair Betsy Mapp.

The state code allows developments that destroy wetlands to rebuild them elsewhere in the state. Northampton’s zoning ordinance allows this by right, which means no permits at the County level were required. Once the company got approval from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the Army Corps of Engineers, it was full steam ahead.

“The larger implication… is if this is done once, it may be done again,” said Supervisor Dixon Leatherbury. “Somewhere, someone is building something to enhance the value of the land, and we’re adding something that decreases the value of the land… I suspect once it’s completed… it will put under a conservation easement, I suspect the value goes to the lowest tax rate.”

This is not the first time working farm land in Northampton has been used for pollution mitigation, as another field on Route 13 in Weirwood was purchased and turned into a tree bank within the last five years. Nor is it the only project ongoing, as County Zoning Administrator Susan McGhee told the board, another is permitted to begin soon on a 90 acre farm in Hare Valley.

“This sounds like a group I have of heard before, with big money, big donations, that do what they want to do,” said Supervisor Oliver Bennett. “There’s not much you can do about them.”

The Board directed County Attorney Bev Leatherbury to research the matter and see what the next steps are to control the use, if not outright ban it in the county.