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State system profile
Virginia's Regional Commissions
- What
- Virginia's 21 Planning District Commissions (PDCs) — six of which officially use the name “Regional Commission”
- Where
- The whole of Virginia, divided into planning districts; local-government membership is voluntary but nearly universal
- Origin
- The planning-district system dates to the Virginia Area Development Act of 1968
- Statute
- Regional Cooperation Act, Code of Virginia Title 15.2, Chapter 42 (§§ 15.2-4200 et seq.)
- Key provision
- § 15.2-4203 lets a planning district commission use the name “regional council” or “regional commission” instead
Virginia offers the neatest illustration of how loose the term “regional commission” really is. The state runs 21 multi-county bodies known generically as Planning District Commissions — but its own law expressly allows any of them to trade that label for “Regional Commission” or “Regional Council.” Six have taken up the “Regional Commission” name, which is why you will find bodies so titled across the Commonwealth even though the underlying legal creature is a planning district commission.
The six named “Regional Commission”
These six planning district commissions have adopted the “Regional Commission” name in place of “Planning District Commission”:
| District | Regional Commission | Based in |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | New River Valley Regional Commission | Radford |
| 5 | Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission | Roanoke |
| 7 | Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission | Front Royal |
| 8 | Northern Virginia Regional Commission | Fairfax |
| 9 | Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission | Culpeper |
| 16 | George Washington Regional Commission | Fredericksburg |
A seventh district, the Commonwealth Regional Council, uses the alternative “Regional Council” form of the name. The remaining fourteen keep the standard “Planning District Commission” title — among them Hampton Roads, Richmond Regional (which brands itself PlanRVA), Thomas Jefferson, Northern Neck, and Middle Peninsula.
Why the names differ — the statute that allows it
The freedom to rename is not informal branding; it is written into the law. Under the Regional Cooperation Act, § 15.2-4203 of the Code of Virginia provides that a planning district commission may employ the name “regional council” or “regional commission” as a substitute for “planning district commission.” The powers and duties are identical whichever name a district chooses; only the sign on the door changes. That single sentence of statute is the clearest possible proof of the point this site makes throughout: the label attached to a regional body often reveals less than you would expect about what the body actually is.
How the system is set up
Virginia's planning districts grew out of the Virginia Area Development Act of 1968 and are now governed by the Regional Cooperation Act. The Commonwealth is divided into planning districts — numbered regions, twenty-one in all today — each served by a commission whose members are drawn from the local governments in the district, typically a mix of elected officials and citizen representatives. Membership is voluntary rather than compulsory, but in practice almost every locality participates, so the commissions between them cover the state.
What they do will be familiar from the regional bodies in other states: regional and transportation planning, economic and community development, grant administration, environmental and hazard-mitigation planning, data and mapping services, and technical assistance to their member localities. Several also serve as the staff for their area's metropolitan planning organisation.
How they relate to the other bodies on this site
Virginia's planning district commissions are state and local bodies, entirely distinct from the federal regional commissions. They sit squarely in the world of councils of governments and regional planning — Virginia's version of the same multi-jurisdiction planning body that other states call a council of governments, an area development district, or (as in Georgia) simply a Regional Commission.