Stormwater regulation was the main topic of discussion at the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission meeting May 23 at commission headquarters in Saluda.

Doug Fritz, stormwater permit manager for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, presented a report about regulations and a state mandate to create a local stormwater management program. State projections for stormwater permits are far different from those of the commission.

Fritz said that a DCR analysis projected a total of 61 assorted stormwater permits would be generated on the Middle Peninsula in one year, generating an estimated $44,611 in program fees.

However, MPPDC executive director Lewis Lawrence said that the total number of permits handled throughout the counties of Gloucester, Mathews, Middlesex, King and Queen, King William and Essex, plus the towns of West Point, Urbanna and Tappahannock in the past five years was less than 60.

Lawrence pointed out that the existing permit fee structur...