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Should Richmond and HR create an CSA?


RVA-Is-The-Best

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Just a thought. I mean think about it. Almost 3 million people, they both have very close connections (both transportation wise and historically) Richmond and Norfolk would be like the two urban "centers" for the CSA, and building out New Kent or Charles City would bridge that big gap between RVA and HR. Any thoughts? I think they are actually pretty close, and it would be a big win for both MSAs.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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While were close we're not close enough for that. You'd really need continuous development from the edge of Williamsburg to the outer richmond suburbs to make that feasible. To be honest, Richmond/Washington would be a far more feasible CSA. This can change however once we get HSR up and running between Richmond and Norfolk.

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An interesting read. I think there's a false understanding that a "CSA" is "created" by the component counties/cities by MOU or some other action to make it so. Whether or not Richmond and Tidewater become part of one CSA is not up to Richmond city council, Norfolk city council, the state legislature, etc. You need tens of thousands of people to live in one area and commute to the other every day. I think of the CSA designation as the Census Bureau's acknowledgement of a reality, not as something your local governments "create." The biggest active role a city or county government could play in contributing to CSA designation is to change their zoning/land use in such a way that encourages sprawl and the marathon commuting required to get the designation. And the land consumption, congestion, vehicle emissions, infrastructure maintenance that would result is probably not in the region's best interest in the end.

Getting beyond the "CSA" thing specifically, the article makes a good point about how a "unified" region could strengthen its voting bloc in the legislature. That could have some real benefit. But a region so geographically large and diverse is likely to have very different (and often competing) interests. There's often disagreement among lawmakers representing HR alone. So it would take a fair bit of convincing assemblypersons from Virginia Beach that the interests of assemblypersons in Louisa County are in their constituents' best interest

For now, I think some kind of detente agreement between HR and Richmond economic development officials that says we won't poach each others' businesses and we'll try to market each others' assets for the benefit of both of our regions might be something these two regions could do today to help themselves out. That doesn't require a CSA designation. Just a little cooperation between two adjacent regions.

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