A former member of the area’s regional planning body had encouraging words for four new people who joined late last week. In 2023, Dale Herring opted not to run for another term as a member of the Greene County Board of Supervisors.
“For me, one of the biggest honors I had being on the Board of Supervisors was serving on the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission,” Herring said. “The Commission is made up of individuals who believe in something greater than themselves, who work for a better tomorrow for all the local communities.”
Across Virginia, Planning District Commissions assist local governments with matters that cross jurisdictional boundaries.
“The PDC was created through the Regional Cooperation Act, all planning district commissions were,” said Christine Jacobs, the executive director of the TJPDC. “TJPDC specifically was created in 1972. There are 21 planning district commissions across the Commonwealth. All jurisdictions are members of planning district commissions.”
TJPDC has a 12-member board made up of appointed and elected officials. Four new people joined last week:
- Albemarle Supervisor Michael Pruitt of the Scottsville District
- Louisa Supervisor Manning Woodward of the Cuckoo District
- Greene Supervisor Tim Goolsby of the Monroe District
- Greene Planning Commissioner James Higgins
Jacobs told the Board that TJPDC is not a policy-making body and is instead intended to be a clearinghouse to share information.
“We really do facilitating and convening and problem-solving at a regional level but all decision making is still at the local level,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs said over the years, many initiatives of the TJPDC have gone on to become free standing institutions such as Jaunt, the Piedmont Housing Alliance, the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless, the Central Virginia Partnership for Economic Development, and the Jefferson Area Board for Aging.
The budget for TJPDC comes from allocations from the state government, grant programming from state and federal sources, and local governments. The TJPDC can also get paid for specific projects.
“So for example, the Town of Mineral reached out to us for support on their Comprehensive Plan and we went under a [Memorandum of Understanding] and they contracted with us to do staff support,” Jacobs said.
I’ll have more from this February 8, 2024 meeting of the TJPDC in future editions of the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter.
Before you go: The time to write and research of this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment comes from the February 14, 2024 edition of the newsletter and podcast. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.
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