message from the president

Winter in Virginia means many things…..holidays, snow and colder temperatures (at least for some of us), and yes, the annual gathering of state legislators in Richmond. In “even-numbered” years like this one, the session is 60 days long…..time that is needed to address the more than 2,700 bills and resolutions that have been introduced and to craft a state budget for the next two fiscal years. It has been a busy session for VAPDC, as we again joined our partners at the Virginia Association of Counties and the Virginia Municipal League the end of January for Local Government Day legislative briefings and a reception. It’s also busy in that VAPDC is advocating for additional state funding for PDCs to erase past reductions and invest in building additional PDC capacity. Thank you to the PDCs and others that have weighed in to support this initiative.

The VAPDC Board and Executive Directors invited the Virginia Housing team to meet with us recently to discuss projects implemented under the PDC Housing Development Program that was funded by Virginia Housing. The design of programs/projects, what worked well and what was challenging were all topics in our conversation. We look forward to continuing the PDC/Virginia Housing partnership to address housing needs in Virginia.



Finally, I hope you have had an opportunity to listen in to a session during VAPDC’s three-part virtual “Winter Series” of educational offerings. We had great events in early January and just last week, with the final installment coming March 1 (see below for more details). 

I am thankful for the leadership of PDCs in all the great work happening in regions around the state. Thank you for your support of and interest in the work of PDC efforts to serve their communities.