Hampton to receive $9 million in grants from state’s flood preparedness program

The City of Hampton will receive more than $9 million in grants to deal with sea level rise and extreme weather as part of an ongoing statewide effort by the Virginia Community Flood Prevention Fund.

The grants, announced last week by Gov. Ralph Northam, will be directed at four specific projects in Hampton: 

•    $3,841,555 for Lake Hampton and North Armistead Avenue

•    $3,008,500 for the Big Bethel Blueway (Albany Drive at Big Bethel Road)

•    $2,022,143 for the Sunset Creek Urban Channel Naturalization Project

•    $291,850 for the Billy Woods Canal

The four Hampton grants were among 30 applications from 22 local government organizations to receive grants made possible with funding from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Terry O’Neill, director of the city’s Community Development Department, noted that the $9,164,037 awarded to Hampton represented “by far the most money granted to any single community in the commonwealth.” O’Neill praised the efforts of the Resilient Hampton initiative for “putting Hampton in a position to compete for an receive these funds.”

In a press release announcing the $24.5 million in grants, Northam called flooding “the most common and costly natural hazard we face.” Ann C. Phillips, a special assistant to Northam for Coastal Adaptation and Protection, said the grants from the Community Flood Preparedness Fund are critical to projects associated with the inaugural Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan, which the governor formally introduced at a press conference in Hampton on Dec. 7.

The grants are financed by the sale of carbon emission allowances under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a collaborative effort among Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector, while also driving economic growth.