HD76 - Commission on Population Growth and Development
Executive Summary: History of the Commission The Virginia General Assembly created the state Commission on Population Growth and Development in 1989 to examine the state's population growth and its effect on the economic, environmental and financial development of the Commonwealth. The Commission has thirty- three (33) members, twenty-three (23) citizen members appointed by the Governor and tea members of the legislature. Delegate W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr. serves as Chairman, and Senator Joseph V. Gartlan, Jr. as Vice Chairman. The Commission, largely a citizen volunteer effort, is committed to an open, collaborative public process. Initially, in 1991 the Commission held 11 public meetings around the state to learn what citizens, local governments and interest groups considered to be the important problems and opportunities facing the Commonwealth. The Commission's work, particularly the development of recommendations, has been shaped by these comments and by an ongoing public dialogue. Direction and Focus Virginia experienced unprecedented growth and change in the past two decades. In ten years, our population grew by 16%, to 6.2 million, and is expected to increase another 2 million by the year 2020. This growth took place largely along the corridor from Northern Virginia, through Richmond, to the Tidewater area. Many other Virginia communities, including central cities and rural areas, did not experience such expansion. The Commission was charged with looking at the challenges facing both communities that grow quickly and those that may not grow at all. In response, the Commission developed 12 key planning goals needed to promote economic growth and natural resource protection, in the context of sound fiscal policies. (See State Planning Goals on page 4). The Commission believes that sound strategic planning is essential to accomplish these goals. State Strategic Planning The Commission reviewed planning efforts at the local, regional and state levels to see how the planning goals could be realized most effectively. It determined that the most important task was to first "get the state's house in order" by developing strategic planning in state government. Strategic planning demands that government look at the "big picture" in deciding how to spend the public's money on programs, services and capital projects. Strategic planning requires government agencies to set short and long term priorities and to coordinate these priorities with other agencies. Overall, strategic planning provides a process to give the state a vision for its future and a framework for realizing that vision. The Commission believes that no successful business the size of the Virginia state government should operate without a strategic plan. The Commission developed the Virginia Growth Strategies Act to implement a state strategic planning process and the companion Virginia Geographic Information Network (VGIN) to provide the information and technological tools needed to plan effectively. State Growth Strategic Act The Virginia Growth Strategies Act will establish a state strategic planning process. This planning process will require the preparation, adoption and implementation of the Virginia Growth Strategies Plan. The legislation requires improved planning and coordination by specific state agencies. Initially four areas of state government (Secretariats) are directed to cooperatively achieve twelve state planning goals. The four Secretaries are: Commerce and Trade, Finance, Natural Resources, and Transportation. The plan development process will be coordinated by the Division of Planning, a proposed new division within the existing Department of Planning and Budget. A citizen/legislative advisory group, the Virginia Strategic Planning Advisory Commission, will be established to work with the Division, the Governor and the state agencies to create and implement the Strategic Plan. The Governor will have the final approval authority for the Plan and is designated by the legislation as the "Chief Planning Officer". Currently the Governor is the Chief Budget Officer. When in place the state planning process, budget, and capital improvements program will implement the goals and objectives of the Strategic Plan. There is one requirement for local governments in the legislation: the filing of their local comprehensive plan with the Division of Planning and the State Library. This filing of comprehensive plans is for information purposes only. As a result, state agencies will have better access to the strategic plans of localities, and localities will have access, through the state lending library, to the plans of their peers. Virginia Geographic Information Network The Virginia Geographic Information Network (VGIN) is a proposal for the state to take a leadership role in establishing a vision for a geographic information system, for setting standards, for creating a GIS management unit, for establishing a network, and for investing in the creation of statewide data layers. The Commission was asked, among its original charges, to examine the need for statewide data dissemination. In 1992, the Commission received additional funds from the General Assembly to develop a strategy for statewide coordination of a comprehensive data collection system. Early on, the Commission focused on the use of geographic information systems, also bow as GIS. GIS is a technology that allows the sharing and use of computerized information about people, places and things that are related to a specific spot on the earth. One of the greatest assets of GIS, and therein its relevance to strategic planning, is its ability to support public policy decision making by testing "what if" Scenarios by graphically representing the interaction of complex conditions. The Commission, in conjunction with the Council on Information Management (CIM) and the assistance of a consultant, PlanGraphics, Inc., spent the last year examining: what information is currently collected in Virginia at the local, regional and state levels; what information should be collected; what other states have undertaken with regard to a statewide data system; and what Virginia should do. The results of the study have been summarized in a report entitled: Virginia Geographic Information Network, Proposal for Legislative Action The report recommends that the state invest immediately in creating four sets of statewide information for: transportation, hydrography, topography and political boundaries. These data layers would be created through digital orthophotography at a scale of 1:12,000. The study also recommends creation of a GIS management unit, adoption of data standards, and a network approach to information sharing. It is currently projected that the cost for the first two years of this program will be approximately $2.9 million: $1.2 million in the first year and $1.7 million in the second year. Complete budget figures are located in the Appendix. THE 12 PLANNING GOALS § 2.1-51.6:7 (Taken from the Virginia Growth Strategies Act) 1. Encourage growth that promotes economic opportunity and improves the quality of life for all citizens of the Commonwealth consistent with the Virginia Growth Strategies Plan. 2. Provide incentives that promote and encourage natural resource-based industries, including agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining and recreational tourism. 3. Provide appropriate incentives for economic development in rural areas. 4. Provide appropriate incentives for economic development and redevelopment of urban area. 5. Determine and develop in an orderly and fiscally responsible manner, infrastructure needed for urban and rural development. 6. Provide a framework for the development and rehabilitation of affordable housing in the Commonwealth. 7. Ensure that water is available to serve the needs of all the people of the Commonwealth and that non-consumptive uses of water are considered and protected. 8. Encourage, consistent with the needs and circumstances of the governmental subdivisions, compact and efficient patterns of development that minimize consumption of land, protect natural resources, enhance mobility of people and goods, promote efficient expenditure of public funds, and reduce resource and energy consumption. 9. Protect the environment and the quality of the Commonwealth's land, water, and air. 10. Conserve and protect open space, scenic and natural areas, recreational areas, unique, endangered, threatened and valuable plant and animal species and their habitats. 11. Protect and enhance the Commonwealth's natural, cultural, and historic resources in order to maintain the Commonwealth's heritage and further its tourist economy. 12. Protect both public and private property interests as established by law. |
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