The Sub-State District/Regional Council

as a Geospatial Unit of Analytical Geography for the United States

Shenandoah Valley Pilot Project

Tom Christoffel, AICP“I see regions.”

Collaborative Expedition Workshop #48February 21, 2006

What are the American regions?

Analysts from other nations consider the American state a semi-autonomous region. Regional Councils like Virginia Planning District Commissions are sub-state districts composed of cities and counties.Multi-state regions like Wash COG utilize state compacts to coordinate across state lines as a region of regions. The “county” or a variant was the common sub-state district or the first region since colonial times. Delegates to the state assembly were elected based on county geography. The County is a stable geographic unit to which Census data is coded.

                                                                                             

Census Data – Geographic Scales – States to big for regional analysis

Counties – the original substate district and basic Census FIPS coded unit – too small for most regional analysis

Most data focuses on the Metropolitan Areas - MSAs

A look at Nonmetro Counties shows how much territory is left out.

What is the impact?

Rural counties do not have detailed economic data.Census County Business Patterns useless – data suppressed unless there are three firms in SIC/NACISLocal and regional analysis more difficult, less dynamic – no reflection of regional labor markets. MSA boundaries change decade to decade, so there’s no standard unit for long-term analysis.

There is another scale – Substate District/ Regional Council Emerging Regional Communities

A look at the County

In the U.S. – the County is the original region.

Centered on the County Seat, it could contain city, town and/or villages and rural area.

It was an effective size for residents – at it farthest points, it was to be a day’s trip to the Court House and back.

For most of the U.S. – the County was the primary home territory until the 1950’s.

1950 – The start of the Auto-Suburban Century Population dispersion as a Cold War defense strategy

pushed suburbanization beginning in the 1950’s. Transportation and mobility improvements change the

range of movement for people and challenge the boundaries based on the prior transportation mode.

The auto and Interstates meant people could live where they wanted and still get to their place of work. This made housing, labor, and retail markets multi-county. It changed the scale of the historic region – the County.

The bedroom community emerged and the direct match between work place taxes and home place service costs is broken. It began in metropolitan areas, but now exists throughout the U.S.

Rural areas

In rural areas, the Interstate was the new railroad. If it missed your area, the historic flight to urban areas continues.

If it went through your county, the interchanges meant opportunities for manufacturing – for the short term, and potential for moderate growth.

Rural economic development took on a regionalism approach early. EDA programs advocated the formation of multi-county regions with a goal of development of the best industrial area in the greater region.

In the 60’s, Regionalism went big time –A-95 Intergovernmental Review

Regional theory expounded the obvious benefits of governmental cooperation and consolidation. There were more local governments than were necessary given the modern world.

Councils of Government could review grant applications to see if the funds were efficient and non-duplicative.

State-wide systems of regional councils were created in states to encourage regional cooperation in the 1960’s.

The concept over-promised and was resisted in some areas from the start.

Regions today? From the viewpoint of a local government

official, they are included in a host of regions: tourism, economic development, social services, technology – each with different boundaries.

The system of regional councils in most states is invisible to the public.

The County is becoming a more dominant local government to deal with its regional issues.

Business and civic leaders want multi-county regional approach because that’s where people live.

Data sets State/County/City/MSA – lots of regions – alignment to regions difficult now.

Watershed data Traffic statisticsEducation dataEmployment dataSocial ServicesHealth statisticsJurisdictions want to know what is going on with their neighbors and peers? How do they compare.

Tyranny of the Alphabet – Data Alpha by County and City – Where is the Geo context?

Using PD # as FIPS Code gets a regional geographic sort. There is no US region FIPS

Lets take a look at Mid-Atlantic regions.

Traveler’s view – Roads to Places; State Boundaries

Wash COG & MSAsVisible to analysts –County footprint mostCommon in media.

The Shenandoah Valley – A Pilot

A multi-county & VA city, multi-RC and multi-state regional community – all at once.Regional Water Resources Policy since 2002SHENAIR program for Air Quality and Meteorology – startup 2005I-81 Transportation Corridor PlanningSuch networking region to region in alliances is an emerging approach to complex issues.

Problems and solution

The alphabetic FIPS data sets work against easy compilation of Federal and State data to this region. Commercial GIS is too robust – requires too many resources. Local/regional/even state IT skills low.Region-building information approach based on Sub-state Districts and related Counties is needed.An information systems approach that used a geographic region code rather than alphabetic FIPS code would aggregate data – Federal, State, local – both public and private where available.The Shenandoah Valley – and the Mid-Atlantic U.S. are regions to pilot this concept in LandVIEW 6, which contains Census and EPA data.

Public Corporate Database/Data Resource Model?

Organizations in the Northern Shenandoah Valley benefit from cross-organization cooperation which has enabled a framework for a networked "Regional Public Corporate Database." This has strengthened community ties, enhances public access to information, and adds to the strategic advantages of the Region’s I-81/I-66 Corridor/Mid-Atlantic location.The data exist, they can be brought together within existing regional groupings with information management strategies that allow adding or subtracting contiguous counties or regions as needed.All Regional Councils do this to some degree and many are Affiliate State Data Centers through the Census Bureau.This represents an opportunity – the use of Sub-State Districts/Regional Councils as a Geospatial Unit of Analytical Geography

Why? So … what’s next?

Leaders of organizations, public and private, are continually challenged to frame their markets and locate appropriate data to support their planning and management activities. Federal and State agencies are the most common source of public data. Data work is costly. Regional alignments are being used to a greater degree and need to be more visible.It adds great value to existing data sets.It will help rural and fringe metro regions. So …. I see regions and look for those with the information processing an data management skills to make this a reality.

Regional Commission - Regional Intelligence – Regional Communities

Tom Christoffel, AICP, Senior PlannerNorthern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission103 E. Sixth Street - Front Royal, VA 22630E-mail: tchrist@shentel.net Web: www.lfpdc7.state.va.us Phone: 540-636-8800 x 209 or Tom Christoffel, AICP, EditorRegional Community NewsP.O. Box 1444Front Royal Virginia (VA) 22630-0031E-mail: regional@shentel.netPhone or fax: 540-635-8582Website: www.regions.ws

The “Regions Work” Initiative © 1998