Paladinos’ living shoreline approved after design shift to reduce marsh impacts

The Lancaster County Wetlands Board approved a living shoreline permit for Vincent and Renee Paladino that will install a 93‑foot living shoreline with clean sand fill and marsh plantings along Taylor Creek.

Jeff Corbin, agent with Native Shorelines, presented the project and told the board that after a site visit with staff and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) the applicant moved the eastern end of the project westward to avoid an existing marsh patch. Corbin said the final design will impact a small patch of marsh—he cited roughly the size of a table in the hearing—but will create more than 700 square feet of new marsh through a shallow-water sill, clean sand fill and marsh planting. “We are still impacting about 80 square feet of marsh grass, but we're creating about over 700 square feet of new marsh grass,” Corbin said.

Olivia, wetlands staff, told the board VIMS provided comments to the board and that Corbin had responded; she described the response as satisfactory. A BMRC representative said they accepted the applicant’s revisions and had no further comments.

Board members discussed the precise square footage of impacts. Morgan (identified in the record) estimated 52 square feet of impact in the revised plan; the applicant removed an earlier 36‑square‑foot hardening impact from the upper-right corner of the original drawing, resulting in a net gain of vegetated wetlands, the record shows. The chair emphasized that the board needs an exact figure for the impacted area; the applicant’s agent pointed to the revised plan documents that list the 52‑square‑foot impact.

The advertised project description in the hearing record listed 84 linear feet of sill with a 9‑foot return for a total of 93 linear feet, approximately 66 cubic yards of clean sand fill and about 755 square feet of wetland planting; the hearing record lists the application as MRC number 25‑0805. A board member moved to approve the permit as revised; the motion passed unanimously, recorded as a 5–0 vote.

The board’s approval follows staff and VIMS review and a site visit; permit conditions require the applicant to follow the revised plan filed with the board and to implement the marsh planting as described in the approved documents.