Overview

The Virginia Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program is a network of Virginia state agencies and local governments, established in 1986 through an Executive Order, which administers enforceable laws, regulations and policies that protect our coastal resources and foster sustainable development.

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) serves as the lead agency for Virginia's networked program.  Through an office headquartered at DEQ, it helps agencies and localities develop and implement coordinated coastal policies and solve coastal management problems.  The overarching goal is to protect our coastal resources and strengthen our coastal economy.

The Virginia CZM Program Coastal Policy Team (CPT), whose members represent all of the program’s networked agencies, facilitates cooperation among the agencies and provides a forum for discussion and resolution of cross-cutting coastal resource management issues.  The CPT proposed a series of goals for the program, which are now contained in the Executive Order.  For a description of the progress the program is making in accomplishing these goals go to Virginia CZM Program Goals and Accomplishments Page.    

The Virginia CZM Program office at DEQ also administers the program's annual grant award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resources Management.  Since 1986, Virginia has received over $61 million in federal Coastal Zone Management Act funding, matched by over $51 million in state and local funds, to implement its Coastal Zone Management Program. As a "maximum-funded state" Virginia receives about $2.5 million annually.

Together, Virginia's localities (represented by Virginia's 8 Coastal Planning District Commissions), state agencies and NOAA form an effective intergovernmental partnership.

Download Virginia CZM Program Overview (pdf)

The Virginia CZM Program is 25 years old!  Read about the accomplishments of the program's partners in our special anniversary issue of the "Virginia Coastal Zone Management" magazine released December 2011.

 

This website is provided by the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program through a federal Coastal Zone Management Act grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce.