Key points:

A number of omissions, contradictions and errors were identified in the joint permit application and support documents during the review of this project. Significant discrepancies have been indicated below along with any assumptions that were made in order for VIMS to complete this review the project.

If purpose and need for the project can be demonstrated, then efforts to sequentially avoid and minimize impacts to wetlands must be exercised and demonstrated during the earliest design phases of a project. Though the applicant has stated in the joint permit application (JPA) that 1,063 residential units are necessary to make the project financially viable, no economic analysis has been provided to justify this level of build-out. The scale of the development directly affects the degree to which avoidance and minimization measures are successful in limiting impacts to tidal and nontidal wetlands.

None of the plan view project drawings depict the location mean high water (MHW) or mean low water (MLW), making it difficult to validate the proposed tidal wetland impact figures presented in the JPA.

If permitted, construction activities will occur over many months to years as the project development occurs in phases, resulting in the disturbance of wading birds and shorebirds currently utilizing the project area as foraging, breeding, and nesting habitat. The driving of piles associated with the construction of the two 11 story towers will likely displace the local population of water birds from the vicinity of the project site for an undetermined period of time.

As proposed, the canoe/kayak floating pier depicted on sheet 13 will sit on nonvegetated wetlands at low tide.

Because there is no shoreline erosion, it appears that the sole purpose of the bulkhead is to raise the site elevations in order to facilitate the development of the buffer immediately adjacent the proposed constructed tidal marsh. Significant encroachment into the buffer is undesirable from an environmental perspective as bulkheads sever the connection between riparian, intertidal and subtidal habitats, alter the natural contour of the shoreline, change nearshore wave dynamics, and may result in the loss of wetland and upland vegetation during or following construction.