The joint subcommittee studying Greater Richmond area regionalism (SJR 61, 1996) began its second year of work by hiring a consultant to examine four service areas. The information gathered was needed to determine if any portion of one or more of the services could be provided on a regional basis in the City of Richmond and the Counties of Chesterfield and Henrico.

During its first year, 1995, the joint subcommittee had decided which service areas it wanted studied and which consultant would perform the work. The four service areas selected were transportation/public transit, water and wastewater, health and social services. The consultant was David M. Griffith & Associates, Ltd.

The consultant met several times with a special subcommittee of the joint subcommittee throughout the fall of 1996. During each of these meetings, the consultant would provide an update on how it was progressing with its work and seek further guidance from the special subcommittee in order to be sure that all of the information which the subcommittee was interested in was being collected.

By December, it was clear that the consultant's report would not be completed before early January. This would not allow the joint subcommittee enough time to thoroughly absorb all of the findings in order for it to make legislative recommendations to the 1997 General Assembly. Therefore, the Greater Richmond area regionalism study was continued for an additional year through SJR 261.

The consultant's final report was delivered to the joint subcommittee in the early fall with an actual presentation of the findings during December of 1997. While there were some areas in which regionalization could prove to be beneficial, the report indicated that the Greater Richmond area localities are involved in a number of joint endeavors and therefore no widespread overhaul of any service area was recommended by the consultant.

The joint subcommittee held its final meeting on January 16, 1998, and agreed with Consultant's finding that a comprehensive public transit system could reduce the need for more road capacity and promote the region's economic goals. As a result, it recommended that the Metropolitan Planning Organization's short-term public transit vision be supported by a request for the Commonwealth to provide an annual investment of $5.2 million and a capital investment of $2.1 million.