Virginia No Adverse Impact Legal Guide

We continue to see constantly increasing hazard losses, particularly from flooding, which consistently ranks as the costliest natural hazard we confront. One major reason for increasing hazard losses is the growth of development and infrastructure in hazard-prone areas despite decades of increasingly useful data outlining natural hazards. One of the reasons local governments continue to allow new development and increasing density of redevelopment in hazard-prone areas is a fear of a lawsuit for denying property owners desired development permits. Thus, the Association of State Floodplain Managers, with over 7,000 national members and more than 12,000 state chapter members, commissioned development of the No Adverse Impact Legal Guide to help attorneys serving local governments better understand the legal landscape of risk related to development and to denials of development permits based on more protective “No Adverse Impact” standards for floodplain management. While a valuable resource, the No Adverse Impact Legal Guide is limited to federal constitutional law and generalities of tort law. This project is developing the Virginia No Adverse Impact Legal Guide based specifically on Virginia law. This is crucial as Virginia’s constitutional protections of private property rights differ from those of the U.S. Constitution, and Virginia tort law has features that distinguish it from many states.

• People and Entities Involved Outside of W&M: 
  • Virginia Floodplain Management Association
  • Kristin Owen, President, VFMA and Floodplain & Dam Safety Manager for Henrico County
• People and Entities at W&M Involved: 
  • Elizabeth Qi, W&M Law School J.D. Candidate (Summer, 2024)
  • James Fakolt, W&M Law School J.D. Candidate (Summer, 2024)
  • Daniella Relvas-Veliadis, W&M Law School J.D. Candidate (Spring, 2025)
  • Kevin Fontenot, W&M Law School J.D. Candidate (Summer, 2025)
  • Thomas Ruppert, VCRC Director