HRPDC & HRTPO: Proof That Regional Collaboration Is Alive and Well in Hampton Roads

You’ve probably heard the old narrative: Hampton Roads struggles to collaborate. It’s a familiar refrain, but it doesn’t hold up, especially when you look at the work of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC).

If anything, collaboration is HRPDC’s middle name.

HRPDC brings together local governments from across the region to tackle the issues no single city or county can solve alone, namely, resilience, housing, water resources, and long-term economic competitiveness. In a region facing significant sea level rise challenges, that kind of coordination is essential. And HRPDC has become a national model for how to do it right.

Working alongside them is the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO), the region’s lead agency for transportation planning. HRTPO decides which major projects move forward, ensuring that limited state and federal dollars are invested where they’ll have the greatest regional impact.  The HRTPO also collaborates with the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission (HRTAC) who manages regional taxes to advance regionally significant transportation projects.  HRTAC has successfully advanced almost $6 billion of interstate highway projects in our region, with over 90 percent of these funds coming from regional tax money generated by the region’s 17 local governments.

A great example of this collaboration in action is the ongoing Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion, one of the largest infrastructure projects in Virginia history. While many partners are involved, projects of this scale simply don’t happen without years of coordinated regional planning, prioritization, and advocacy, exactly the kind of work HRTPO, HRPDC and HRTAC are built to lead.

The bottom line: far from being fragmented, Hampton Roads has strong, effective structures for regional collaboration. Organizations like HRPDC and HRTPO are proof that when we align around shared priorities, we can move big ideas forward and position our region for long-term success.