Build One Portsmouth
2019 Virginia APA Resilient Community of the Year Award
- Adopted: 2018
- Client: City of Portsmouth, VA
- Project Type: Comprehensive Plan Update
About This Project
The City of Portsmouth desired a process to build a more sustainable and resilient future. Emily Crow lead the MDC Team (McBride Dale Clarion, Planning NEXT, Clarion Associates, Kimley-Horn Associates, the Miles Agency, NEMAC, and David Rouse to assist in the completion of this project. The city’s goals were to generate strategies for economic prosperity, flood mitigation and resiliency, as well as ways to support a more resilient community from public health and education to facilities and services. The MDC Team worked with many stakeholders including the Navy, Coast Guard, and Virginia Port Authority to understand the unique forces and trends shaping Portsmouth’s future.
Considerable emphasis was placed on identifying strategies to manage the city’s future under the threat of sea level rise which is already creating flooding implications throughout the region.
The final adopted plan is an innovative interactive strategic plan endorsed by David Rouse from APA as a pilot project for Sustainability Scoring. The plan can be downloaded at http://www.buildoneportsmouth.org
MDC also completed a land use study for the city’s uptown district for economic development and revitalization under updated and revised development regulations.