Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

SothebysVA t1_j8nyw4r wrote

Reply to comment by Charlesinrichmond in Henrico County proposes real estate tax credit for 2nd year in a row by Charlesinrichmond

Unlikely to happen but it is called "reverse annexation".

I believe this would be a radical but proper solution to this issues of the City. Return land to Henrico and Chesterfield, then give the remaining part of the city to Henrico.

Alternatively, the City could start to annex the County which was the normal progression till the 70's (I believe) when they took part of Chesterfield with a dubious purposes. They were blocked from taking more land in the future.

This system can't be frozen, it needs to expand or be disbanded. The worst case is what we have now.

9

nfojones t1_j8qjc1a wrote

Love this thought and totally agree that we're worse off with things in a stalemate where nothing budges. Our system as designed would not have been created as-is had annexation been off the table. Returning the power to the city on the other hand would seem fraught with a lot of bad outcomes that wouldn't produce a net positive for the region.

Texas cities still rely on a certain level of interlocal agreement akin to Virginia's setup to provide/exchange services but they still differ in major ways that put more goodwill into the interlocal pot like independent school districts.

I've always thought a certain change with schools could be another way to increase the interlocal chemistry here too but that could very well prove too toxically controversial by itself.

While I've definitely imagined Henrico and Richmond somehow finding their way to a consolidated city-county configuration as a remedy to our situation I've never considered the potential of returning some of the annexed city and how that may play in the public discourse. Even if it were left up to a specially drawn district and stay or go were put to a vote it may offer an agreeable path to a Richmond City of Henrico County transition.

1