On this page, I hope to expand on the notion of a regional City of Hampton Roads. While the name is not important, I hope that we can one day make this a reality.

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The Basics
The main reason to create a regional City of Hampton Roads is so that the whole area benefits where formerly each independent jurisdiction would benefit. The city could be called a variety of things (i.e. City of Hampton Roads, City of Norfolk, City of Virginia Beach, City of Norfolk/Virginia Beach, etc.), however, I do not think that the name is the appropriate place to start. I think that the first thing to do would be to identify where a regional government would be a benefit. In other words, which services would be best performed by a regional entity? I would start with trash collection, water service, sewer service, police, and fire & rescue. This would be a basic starting point. Once we have a Metro government taking care of these services with all localities paying into it, we can move to bigger and better things. Note the emphasis on ‘all localities.’ The reason for this is to keep another SPSA from being born.

SPSA is a good example of what not to do. When SPSA was created, regional leaders made what they thought was a good deal. Every member locality would pay a flat rate for waste services. Suffolk’s fee would be waived due to the landfill location. Virginia Beach’s fee would be fixed lower, due to the transfer stations that were located within the borders of Virginia Beach. That arrangement was great then. Unfortunately for SPSA, our population has grown. Suffolk now contributes much more waste than it did back in the early eighties. Same goes for Virginia Beach. This means that the rates had to go up for cities like Norfolk and Portsmouth so that they could afford to donate their services to other cities. A better alternative would have been to charge everyone the same rate. Calculate what Suffolk and Virginia Beach would pay at that rate for the year their contract started. Then, using that amount, give them a rebate. That way, Suffolk and Virginia Beach would pay their fair share for their growth, instead of sucking money out of the rest of the region.

Water service is a great thing to have regional for a number of reasons. If you didn’t know, Norfolk owns most of the water on the Southside, which is why Virginia Beach had to go all the way to lake Gaston to find fresh water. If we had a regional water utility service, we could combine resources for the region.

Let’s look at the other basic services such as police, fire, and rescue. Most people do not realize that we already have de facto regional emergency services. If you live on the border of Norfolk and Virginia Beach on the VB side of the line and your house catches fire, the Virginia Beach dispatcher will dispatch Norfolk units if they are closer and available. What even fewer people realize is that the cities do not charge for that. They do it out of kindness. Why should we continue to do this though? If all emergency services were regional, there would be a larger, more cost-effective and efficient entity to do it all.

The Boundaries

In the beginning of a regional movement, the above services would operated much like current regional bodies do: Each city pays into a pot that is used as funding. Also, a single board of elected officials would govern the use of these services. As we move forward, however, the need for individual cities will become nonexistent. As we become regional, people will expect that our localities will move to continue the regionalism. To make this the most effective, this forward movement will require assistance from the General Assembly. I know what you’re thinking. “But the General Assembly is broke, how can they help?” Don’t worry about that because all we need is their blessing and signature. In Virginia, The General Assembly has absolute authority to redraw the boundaries of any political subdivision in the Commonwealth. They will need to allow us to merge.

When it is time for this merger, I would suggest moving forward in stages. First, the final city of the future should be defined. I think that it is reasonable to work towards merging what is considered “urbanized area” under the Census definition. That would be our stated endgame. Anything outside the urbanized area should revert back to County status. In the beginning, the merger should start from the middle and work its way out. The first merger would be of Norfolk and Virginia Beach north of their Green Line. The southern part of VB would, for the time being, its own County with the same name as the city. All basic county services would be handled by the regional entity responsible for each service. The following year, the next merger would occur. This would merge Portsmouth and Chesapeake (from Great Bridge to the north) into the Metro city. This would continue until all of the contiguous urbanized area was part of the Metro city. All of the non-urbanized area and the small urbanized areas that do not connect to the main city will be part of the county.

Written into the new charters of the city and county would be an annexation provision to allow for growth from Census to Census.

County vs. City

The main purpose of the county is to define the line where urban services end. The small urbanized areas within the county would be given town status so that they could serve their areas with basic town services, such as municipal water. Most services would be taken care of at a regional level. The county would contribute funds to the city budget and would have a county representative as a voting member of the city council. To further encourage development inside the city limits and discourage urban sprawl, tolls would be collected on all highways entering the city. The tolls would be low, truck traffic would be exempt, and each car would get two free passes per week (to allow for tourists/travelers). The funds raised from these tolls would go towards transit and maintenance.

Development

I have only begun to touch on this topic. In order to make the region as a whole more efficient and profitable for all residents (profitable for residents = lower taxes), we have to find a way to limit new road construction and expand mass transit. The previously mentioned tolls would be a start. Additionally, the city would develop master plans for all areas around transit stops (current and future). These plans would be very specific and transit oriented. Builders and developers would be given priority for approval if they stuck to the plan, making the plan more effective. This targeted, compact growth would allow for a much more effective transit system.

Development would be severely restricted in the county area and would have to be centered around existing development centers. These development centers would be connected via transit. Construction permit fees would be increased and developers would be required to pay for all infrastructure improvements to new developments. Permit fees would be waived if the development followed the master plan. The infrastructure requirement would be waived if the new development were locate inside the urban city area. These measures would lower the cost of operations for the county and thus save money for the region. It would also encourage development in existing neighborhoods and protect the open environment located on the fringe of the urban area. Furthermore, increased density in the urban area would increase efficiency and decrease cost-per-passenger for transit.