The Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission (RVARC, founded in 1969, is one of 21 Virginia Planning District Commissions. The Regional Commission is not a State Agency, but was established by its member governments through a charter agreement under Virginia law [1] as a political subdivision of the Commonwealth. The Regional Commission serves the governments, businesses, and citizens of the region.
The Commission's board is composed of 36 representatives appointed by its member local governments. Board representation also includes non-voting liaison members representing chambers of commerce, economic development organizations and community colleges.
The commission promotes regional cooperation and provides support to member localities in transportation planning, environmental planning, land use planning, comprehensive planning, GIS and economic development. As a State Data Center Affiliate, the commission also provides demographic data services.
Local governments are allowed to become members of more than one planning district. Franklin County and the Town of Rocky Mount are designated as part of the West Piedmont Planning District Commission, but they are also members of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission.
The Commission was known as the Fifth Planning District Commission, but changed its name to the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission in 1999.
Commission funding varies from year to year. Funding is obtained from multiple federal state and local sources.
The commission also staffs the Roanoke Valley Area Metropolitan Planning Organization which is a federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization. The commission also staffs a regional program known as RIDE Solutions which supports and promotes sustainable transport activities such as ridesharing, transit, biking and pedestrian mobility.
Alleghany County, Virginia
Botetourt County, Virginia
Craig County, Virginia
Franklin County, Virginia
Roanoke County, Virginia
City of Covington, Virginia
City of Roanoke, Virginia
City of Salem, Virginia
Clifton Forge, Virginia
Rocky Mount, Virginia
Vinton, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia.
Franklin County is located in the Blue Ridge foothills of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 54,477. Its county seat is Rocky Mount.
Covington is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,737, making it the second-least populous city in Virginia. It is surrounded by Alleghany County, of which it is also the county seat. Located at the confluence of Jackson River and Dunlap Creek, Covington is one of three cities in the Roanoke Regional Partnership. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Covington with Alleghany county for statistical purposes.
Rocky Mount is a town in and the county seat of Franklin County, Virginia, United States. The town is part of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area, and had a population of 4,799 as of the 2010 census. It is located in the Roanoke Region of Virginia.
The Washington–Baltimore metropolitan area is a combined statistical area consisting of the overlapping labor-market region of the cities of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. The region includes Central Maryland, Northern Virginia, three counties in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, and one county in South Central Pennsylvania. It is the most educated, highest-income, and fourth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.
Councils of governments are regional governing and/or coordinating bodies that exist throughout the United States. CoGs are normally controlled by their member local governments, though some states have passed laws granting CoGs region-wide powers over specific functions, and still other states mandate such councils.
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) is an independent, nonprofit association where area leaders address regional issues affecting the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia. Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments comprises 24 local governments in the Washington metropolitan area, as well as area members of the Maryland and Virginia state legislatures, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives. About 300 local, state and federal elected officials make up its membership. It was founded in 1957 and formally incorporated on May 28, 1965.
The Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area is a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in Virginia as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The Roanoke MSA is sometimes referred to as the Roanoke Valley, even though the Roanoke MSA occupies a larger area than the Roanoke Valley. It is geographically similar to the area known as the Roanoke Region of Virginia, but while the latter includes Alleghany County, the former does not. As of the 2020 census, the MSA had a population of 315,251.
A metropolitan planning organization (MPO) is a federally mandated and federally funded transportation policy-making organization in the United States that is made up of representatives from local government and governmental transportation authorities. They were created to ensure regional cooperation in transportation planning. MPOs were introduced by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which required the formation of an MPO for any urbanized area (UZA) with a population greater than 50,000. Federal funding for transportation projects and programs are channeled through this planning process. Congress created MPOs in order to ensure that existing and future expenditures of governmental funds for transportation projects and programs are based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive ("3-C") planning process. Statewide and metropolitan transportation planning processes are governed by federal law. Transparency through public access to participation in the planning process and electronic publication of plans now is required by federal law. As of 2015, there are 408 MPOs in the United States.
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) is the metropolitan planning organization for the Delaware Valley. Created in 1965 by an interstate compact, DVRPC is responsible for transportation and regional planning in the greater Philadelphia area.
The Roanoke Valley in southwest Virginia is an area adjacent to and including the Roanoke River between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Appalachian Plateau to the west. The valley includes much of Roanoke County, as well as the two independent cities of Roanoke and Salem.
The AAA Western Valley District was a high school conference in the state of Virginia that included the small number of schools in Central and Southwest Virginia which competed in Group AAA, is largest enrollment class of the Virginia High School League.
The AA Blue Ridge District is a district in the Region III of the Virginia High School League. The district is centered around the Roanoke Valley in Southwest Virginia and is named for the Blue Ridge Mountains, which feature prominently in the region's geography.
Southwest Virginia, often abbreviated as SWVA, is a mountainous region of Virginia in the westernmost part of the commonwealth. Located within the broader region of western Virginia, Southwest Virginia has been defined alternatively as all Virginia counties on the Appalachian Plateau, all Virginia counties west of the Eastern Continental Divide, or at its greatest expanse, as far east as Blacksburg and Roanoke. Another geographic categorization of the region places it as those counties within the Tennessee River watershed. Regardless of how borders are drawn, Southwest Virginia differs from the rest of the commonwealth in that its culture is more closely associated with Appalachia than the other regions of Virginia. Historically, the region has been and remains a rural area, but in the 20th century, coal mining became an important part of its economy. With the decline in the number of coal jobs and the decline of tobacco as a cash crop, Southwest Virginia is increasingly turning to tourism as a source of economic development. Collectively, Southwest Virginia's craft, music, agritourism and outdoor recreation, such as a kayak adventure on the Clinch River, are referred to as the region's "creative economy."
In the U.S. state of Virginia, U.S. Route 220 (US 220) is a major north-south state highway that extends from the North Carolina state line through Roanoke to the West Virginia state line. South of Roanoke, US 220 is a four-lane highway within the proposed Interstate 73 (I-73) corridor. US 220 narrows to two lanes north of Roanoke, connecting to I-64 near Clifton Forge and then paralleling the Appalachian Mountains north-northeasterly in the direction of Cumberland, Maryland.
The Roanoke Region is the area of the Commonwealth of Virginia surrounding the city of Roanoke. Its usage may refer to the metropolitan statistical area or the Roanoke Valley, but it sometimes includes areas in the Allegheny Mountains and New River Valley which includes Alleghany County, Montgomery County, Covington, Clifton Forge, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford. Bedford County and Floyd County are sometimes included as part of the region.
Virginia's Planning District Commissions were formed in 1968 by the Virginia General Assembly. The enabling legislation for Planning District Commissions is known as the Regional Cooperation Act Planning Districts are comparable to Council of Governments that exist in other states.
The Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission (RRRC), founded in 1973, is one of 21 Virginia Planning District Commissions. The Regional Commission is not a State Agency, but was established by its member governments through a charter agreement under Virginia law as a political subdivision of the Commonwealth. The Regional Commission serves the governments, businesses, and citizens of the region. The Commission is sometimes referred to as Planning District Nine, but its official name is the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission.
The Commission on Education, known as the Perrow Commission after its chairman, Virginia state senator Mosby Perrow Jr., was a 40-member commission established by Governor of Virginia J. Lindsay Almond on February 5, 1959 after the Virginia Supreme Court in Harrison v. Day and a three-judge federal court in James v. Almond had both struck down significant portions of the Stanley Plan, which had implemented Massive Resistance to the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education issued on May 17, 1954 and May 31, 1955. Four legislators were appointed from each of the ten U.S. Congressional districts in Virginia. Compared to the Gray Commission that Governor Thomas B. Stanley had appointed five years previously, Perrow Commission included more representatives from cities, northern and Western Virginia, although many members served on both commissions.
Regional Development Commissions are regional governments in Minnesota made up of a board of local elected officials from counties, cities, schools boards, public interest groups and transit systems that provide cooperation and coordination on broad regional issues. The Regional Development Commissions, commonly abbreviated as RDC, were established by state law in 1969 to provide a variety of governmental assistance to local governments. They are a type of regional planning organization that have responsibility to provide technical assistance to a broad multi-county area of the state, and their functions are similar to the metropolitan planning organization in urbanized areas. As their intent was to support local governments, they frequently provide a coordinating role and generally do not exercise any type of binding authority over local matters.