Summit Highlights the Importance of "Regionalism"
Event organized by the area Chamber of Commerce is "an intentional step towards a regional conversation."
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
If people in other states and countries think about the Fredericksburg region at all, they think of it only as “close to Washington, D.C.”
That’s been the experience of Ted Abernathy, the founder and managing partner of Economic Leadership, a North Carolina-based economic and business strategy firm. Abernathy travels for most of the year and has worked on projects in 20 U.S. states, as well as internationally, and on Wednesday he delivered the keynote address at a summit on regionalism organized by the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce.
That fact that no one knows about “the Fredericksburg region,” or lumps it in with “Northern Virginia,” means the region has a prime opportunity to create a narrative for itself, Abernathy said to attendees gathered at the Jepson Alumni Executive Center at the University of Mary Washington
“You all are a part of the Virginia narrative,” he said. “And if you aren’t creating that narrative, someone else will.”
Abernathy presented data showing that while Virginia as a whole is lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of job growth over the 10 years between 2012 and 2022, the Fredericksburg region—which consists of Fredericksburg City and the counties of Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline and King George—is ahead of the state in terms of overall job growth and specific growth in the construction; trade, transport and utilities; and professional and business services sectors.
A wave of new data centers, plus the Veteran’s Affairs hospital in Spotsylvania that will be completed next year, will create thousands more new jobs in coming years.
Between November 2022 and November 2023, Abernathy said, the region added 7,178 net new jobs. The population growth in all regional jurisdictions, with the exception of the city, has been faster in the past 10 years than population growth statewide—and this trend is expected to continue in the next 10 years, which will see more than 85,000 new residents in the area.
These statistics mean the region is “positioned for opportunity,” Abernathy said.
The goal for Wednesday’s summit was for it to be a first “intentional step towards a regional conversation,” said Susan Spears, president and CEO of the regional Chamber of Commerce.
Attendees included local business and nonprofit leaders; elected officials from Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania and King George; and representatives from Germanna Community College and K-12 school divisions in Fredericksburg, Stafford and Caroline.
Many of the attendees recently traveled together to Lexington, Kentucky, on a fact-finding mission to learn how that area has embraced regionalism.
“They have taken local attributes and turned them into a multi-stakeholder regional effort,” said John Hewa, president and CEO of Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, which was one of the main sponsors of Wednesday’s summit. “Our key takeaway from that trip is that they are ignited by regionalism.”
Abernathy said that when businesses and firms are looking to expand, they are looking at “factors, not local boundaries.”
They consider regional issues, such as workforce demographics, the cost of living, and the cost and availability of housing.
In order to succeed as a region, Abernathy said, local jurisdictions need to put aside competition and work together on issues of importantance to all, such as transportation and housing.
Abernathy said that globally, trust in institutions is deteriorating and people are finding more to disagree with. A regional approach can be a way to fight back against these destructive forces.
“To solve that, we have to build as much social capital as possible,” he said. “We have to build connections. And we can’t build those in a crisis—we must build them in front of a crisis.”
Abernathy said the Fredericksburg region needs an action plan for achieving regional competitiveness—and the action plan needs to be specific, realistic, and resourced; have champions to advocate for it; and have someone be responsible for it.
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I had hoped this article would generate some discussion. It describes a promising event with potentially positive impacts, but no. My suspicion is that most of us have seen these events reported over several decades, without any appreciable follow-up. The leadership is simply not there to do more than convene prominent local folks in a room and talk a good game. It might be instructive to look at the one regional organization that is mandated by federal law, the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. This organization MUST develop a regional transportation plan every few years to be eligible for state and federal transportation dollars. With millions upon millions of transportation dollars on the line, there are real consequences for not cooperating. The effort is frought with conflict and parochialism, but the mandate stands. Too many people, however, see FAMPO as a technical nightmare populated by transportation nerds. They also see the process as painfully drawn out, with approved projects required to wait years before being funded. Too bad. Infrastructure dictates how a region will grow and develop and decisions made today will be felt into the next century. To see how seriously localities take this effort, look at who they appoint to be on the FAMPO committee. Some recognize FAMPO's importance and appoint mature, far-seeing members. Others can't be bothered and dump that responsibility on the new guys. It can be an expensive learning curve with consequences that extend far into the future. The potential success of any regional organization can be seen in how we manage FAMPO from year to year.