There are 21 PDCs in Virginia. They are made up of elected officials and citizens appointed to the Commission by member local governments. The Commission selects an Executive Director responsible for managing daily operations. Commission offices are located generally in a central location for the region as determined by the Commission charter. Meeting schedules vary, and meetings are open to the public. Persons needing additional information are encouraged to contact your local PDC . 

THE PURPOSE OF PLANNING DISTRICT COMMISSIONS, AS SET OUT IN THE CODE OF VIRGINIA, SECTION 15.2-4207, IS 

 "...to encourage and facilitate local government cooperation and state-local cooperation in addressing on a regional basis problems of greater than local significance. The cooperation resulting from this chapter is intended to facilitate the recognition and analysis of regional opportunities and take account of regional influences in planning and implementing public policies and services. The planning district commission shall also promote the orderly and efficient development of the physical, social and economic elements of the district by planning, and encouraging and assisting localities to plan, for the future." (See www.vapdc.org for more information). 

 Census Urban Areas: Census Urban Areas are those areas defined as urban by the US Census Bureau in the most recent Census (2010).

Smoothed Urban Areas: The Smoothed Urban Boundary is designed for the specific use of federal functional classification. The smoothed boundary contains the entire official urban boundary with some slight additions to make classifying roadways easier. It is created and maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation and MPO planning staff and is officially adopted by the MPO. The urbanized areas include all urban blocks as defined by the US Census and include potential areas of growth beyond the currently identified urban areas. 

Metropolitan Planning Organization Study Area (including Transportation Planning Organization): A Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is a regional planning entity, created by federal law, responsible for transportation planning and approval of federal transportation funding for the region. MPO's provide a forum where local officials, public transportation providers and state agency representatives come together and cooperatively plan to meet a region;'s current and future transportation needs. MPOS are created by federal law to provide local input for urban transportation planning and allocation federal transportation funds in urbanized areas with populations greater than 50,000. NOTE: TMPD adjusted several boundaries to encompass the urban areas defined by the 2010 Census data: Charlottesville, Hampton Roads, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg, Northern Virginia, Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro, Winchester. The changes consisted primarily of adding whole census blocks that appeared to be split along the boundary edge. Census Block 510150712003003 in the Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro is only partially included within the MPA boundary as the southern portion of the census block is located within the George Washington And Jefferson National Forest. The data is current as of December 2016.