Charlottesville, VA Environmental Rules: Boat Dock Permits (2026)

4 governs the regulatory floodway, the channel and adjacent land needed to carry the base flood without raising water levels. Within that floodway, encroachments including fill, new construction and substantial improvements are barred outright unless hydrologic and hydraulic engineering analysis shows no increase in flood levels, no diversion of floodwater, and no added erosion or property-damage risk. A narrower list of uses, including marinas, boat rentals, docks, piers and wharves, is not banned outright but instead requires the applicant to obtain a special exception from the Board of Zoning Appeals before building, alongside other floodway-eligible uses such as accessory structures, temporary-use-permit uses, vehicle sales lots, and storage yards for non-floatable equipment.

Before granting that exception, the BZA must find, in addition to whatever other standards it normally applies to a special exception, that the requirements of the floodplain Section itself are satisfied, meaning the applicant still has to show the dock or marina will not raise the base flood elevation or interfere with flood flow. The Floodplain Administrator reviews the underlying engineering analysis and coordinates with the City's VESCP and VSMP administrators and the Director of Public Works before a permit issues. S. 9.