The Regional Commission convenes the New River Valley Planners Forum on regular basis to help local planning departments discuss and address issues of mutual concern. At a meeting of the Planners Forum held on August 26th, the group heard about an effort related to Livability Strategy Implementation. The Livability Leadership Team is trying to identify development patterns and trends across the region as a whole. There is some variation among localities in terms of how development-related data is captured or collected and retained. Ultimately, it would be useful to find a way to compare data across jurisdictions to allow patterns and trends to be identified related to impacts on rural character. The purpose of the Planners Forum discussion was to document and further understand development data tracking practices so that steps to create more consistent data across the region can be identified.
For further information on the Planners Forum, please contact Patrick Burton (pburton@nrvrc.org), 540-639-9313, ext. 217. For further information on the Livability Leadership Team, please contact Kevin Byrd (kbyrd@nrvrc.org), 540-639-9313, ext. 212.