The four stakeholders that govern transportation in Northern Virginia are considering consolidating their efforts after an escalating push from lawmakers to ax what they deem repetitive commissions.
Advocates for the four bodies — Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, Northern Virginia Regional Commission, and Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission — successfully staved off a legislative attempt this session to force the boards to combine efforts. But even as the legislation died, lawmakers from Northern Virginia sent a letter in April asking the bodies to consider it on their own.
“Engage your organization in an effort to determine whether consolidation and/or improved coordination would enhance regional planning, including transportation planning and services,” said to the letter signed by 40 area delegates and senators.
Since then, leaders for the groups have met, including in the past month, to consider the proposal and see if there is overlap between the bodies, said Jay Fisette, chairman of the NVTC.
“We have initiated a plan,” Fisette said. “We laid out a process, we told them we would be able to respond to their request and do a thorough analysis. We would get back to them by the middle of November.”
There’s growing pressure from within the NVTC to consolidate, thanks to the addition of Sen. Dick Black, R-Leesburg, to the organization following the results of last year’s elections that gave Republicans Senate representation in Northern Virginia. Black favors a course of action that could ultimately kill the commission he sits on.
“We certainly have more boards and commissions and government bodies than we ought to have, and so if we can combine functions I think there’s merit to that,” Black said. “I’ll be watching that as I sit on the commission.”
But the four boards have inherently different duties, says Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a D.C.-area group promoting transit.
“They are effective and successful, and to us the real intention in our view behind this is to shift power to Richmond,” Schwartz said. “It doesn’t work to the benefit of Northern Virginia.”
