SD14 - Final Report of the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations on the Condition and Future of Virginia's Cities


Executive Summary:
Senate Joint Resolution 218 (SJR 218), which was enacted by the 2000 General Assembly, directed the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) to conduct a two-year follow-up study of the work of the Commission on the Condition and Future of Virginia's Cities (Cities Commission). Specifically, the ACIR was requested to study the recommendations of the Cities Commission and to make additional recommendations for measures to alleviate the growing social and economic problems confronting Virginia's urban localities.

The single most significant finding of the ACIR was the increasing importance of Virginia's metropolitan areas to both the economy and the quality of life of the state and its localities. Four corollaries to this conclusion included the importance of recognizing the interdependence of localities within metropolitan areas and understanding how they work together as systems; the advantage of increasing both the rate and quality of cross-jurisdictional collaboration within metropolitan areas across all functional areas; the need to recognize the great diversity among Virginia's metropolitan areas and to take their unique attributes into account in policymaking; and the importance of reexamining state structures and practices of all kinds to ensure that the Commonwealth's legislative and administrative processes foster strong metropolitan areas and thereby increase the chance of success for their constituent localities.

The ACIR concludes its study with a set of thirty (30) recommendations for promoting the vitality of the metropolitan areas of the Commonwealth. The most important recommendations are the first two:

Recommendation 1: Articulate a State Vision and Goals for the Future of Virginia's Communities and the State as a Whole.

Recommendation 2: Adopt a Comprehensive Policy to Promote Regional and Community Vitality.