| In 1997, the 10 counties that comprise Virginia’s
Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck qualified as a regional
partnership for economic development under the Virginia Regional
Competitiveness Program. They formed a regional economic development
agency, Virginia’s River Country, and were awarded a
total of $10.97 million over five years for regional projects.
In 2001, the Regional Competitiveness Program announced that
all partnerships must re-qualify for support by updating strategic
plans for regional cooperation and economic development. Leaders
of Virginia’s River Country quickly agreed that their
region was too large to be truly effective and must reorganize.
They agreed that separate economic partnerships would best
serve the communities in the Middle Peninsula and the Northern
Neck and that the two regions would pursue re-qualification
separately. They also agreed that the Middle Peninsula would
retain Virginia’s River Country, a 501-c-6 corporation,
as the economic development agency for its six counties and
three towns.
A two-step process was used to create the new regional partnership
for the Middle Peninsula. This was due to timing. Virginia’s
River Country cannot reorganize as a new partnership until
the current Virginia’s River Country Board of Directors’
charter expires on June 30, 2002.
As a first step, the Regional Economic Development Partnership
was formed by the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission
(MPPDC) in January, 2002 to develop and adopt the new strategic
plan for economic development. The second step calls for the
members of the planning committee to assume responsibility
on July 1 as the Board of Directors of Virginia’s River
Country to implement the strategic plan.
The Middle Peninsula’s six counties and three towns
adopted resolutions in January, February and March to establish
the new regional partnership and support the reorganization
of Virginia’s River Country as the regional economic
development agency.
Partnership members were recruited from key stakeholder groups
- county and town elected officials and administrators, as
well as leaders of educational, civic and other community
organizations. They participated in each stage of the development
of the new strategic plan. Their involvement ranged from early
leadership in determining how Middle Peninsula should best
manage economic development to direct participation in public
strategy sessions for priority economic sectors.
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