Balance by Compromise and Negotiation: Does a Citizen-led Shoreline Regulatory Process Achieve Environmental Policy Outcomes?

This study examines the process of shoreline regulation through the citizen-led permitting process by local wetlands boards in Virginia, focusing on the perceptions of the permit decision-making team and the factors considered in their decision making. Analysis of the decision process reveals the intricacies of the management of tidal wetlands and how they affect the long-term sustainability of wetlands. Results show that the process of compromise and negotiation with property owners is valued highly as part of the permit-seeking process, resulting in very few permits being denied. Decision makers perceived that environmental change and increased flooding are risks to their community, but also that their decisions are balancing environmental concerns and protecting wetlands. This perception that permit decisions appropriately protect tidal wetlands is at odds with studies by wetlands scientists that suggest the citizen regulatory process fails to achieve the no net loss of wetlands policy goals and does not result in sustainability for wetlands.