MANAGEMENT ACTIONS Management Action 1:
Support local planning by providing funding and economic incentives to local governments to integrate environmental and economic planning by 1999
Management Action 2:
Provide to local governments affordable and accessible data from the state Geographic Information System (GIS) for use in planning and public education within the region by 1996.
Management Action 3:
Implement a comprehensive, coordinated and proactive approach to managing the state's public trust waters by 1996.
Management Action 4:
Provide support to organizations that promote nature-based tourism and environmental education as a way of fostering environmentally sound economic development in the region.
Object A
Promote Local and Regional Planning that Protects the Environment and Allows for Economic Growth.
Strategy: Different planning requirements affect the cities, towns and counties of the APES region. In North Carolina, coastal communities must prepare land use plans. Counties that provide public water service must prepare water supply plans. And counties with water supply watersheds must plan for protecting those areas. Virginia requires comprehensive planning for all counties, and tidewater counties have specific environmental standards. While these requirements result in environmental planning for many parts of the region, many local communities -- as well as local natural resources -- would benefit from expanded comprehensive planning aimed at meeting both environmental and economic goals. To accommodate future growth and change while preserving the quality of life within the estuarine area, North Carolina would augment existing regulations with a proactive, voluntary planning initiative. Specifically, in the APES region, the state would fund local plans that address the combined goals of economic growth and environmental protection.
The state would provide six planners proficient with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) who would provide technical assistance for local economic and environmental planning. As an incentive, the state would give localities with approved environmental plans higher priority for construction funds from the State Revolving Fund. To support local environmental and economic planning, the state GIS in the Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (CGIA) would be more accessible and affordable. The APES program has funded the development of numerous data layers on this system. Within the region, a few councils of government, counties, and municipalities already have GIS systems in place. Local government planning would benefit from affordable and up-to-date GIS data. The state would fund CGIA sufficiently to provide access to the standardized GIS database at affordable rates. CGIA would update GIS data layers as needed. (See Management Action 2 under Objection A in the Vital Habitats Plan.) Providing GIS work stations at the three DENR regional offices that serve the APES region would make the system even more accessible.