2024 Virginia Outdoor Plan Northern Virginia Regional Commission Comments 

July 30, 2024 

The Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC) staff received the notice of a draft Virginia Outdoor Plan (VOP) on July 3, 2024. The updated plan was a bit of a surprise as for many years NVRC provided regional planning support to DCR in developing and identifying regional priorities, updates, and context for the VOP. We hope for an opportunity to rectify this communication gap prior to plan implementation.  

For context, NVRC historically hosted events in support of our regional trails and heritage resources work. The 2021 District 8 VOP meeting had 42 stakeholders and land managers who attended and commented on the previous plan from the region. Hosting a similar event for the 2024 plan would have offered the opportunity for NVRC staff to provide important information and insights regarding regional needs and priorities for Northern Virginia. A meeting with stakeholders and land managers would have also supported the priority listed in the plan to demonstrate effective collaboration and reporting with communities. As the state official conservation and outdoor recreation plan, we would expect some input and support of regional and local priorities and initiatives as many of these projects would improve access to recreation and improved alignments that benefit the Commonwealth statewide. However, this version of the plan instead reflects a top-down mandate to localities, rather than a form of coordination to meet the needs of residents and visitors to our recreational and heritage resources. 

We also observed a lack of engagement on the regional and local level within the report itself. For example, the statewide economic analysis doesn’t address the breakthrough study NVRC did to explore the economic and health benefits of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail (PHNST) in Northern Virginia. This assessment and analysis could be applied to many other parts of the state and monetizes the health benefits of access to safe recreation and trails. You can find this study here: Equity And Economic Study | PHNST Dashboard (potomacheritagenova.com).  

Regarding the online hub, we appreciate the online, interactive version of the report; however, it would be ideal to also incorporate regional breakouts, priorities, and engagement on individual regions, public space planners, and land managers. The site may wish to include the extensive mapping and data elements produced by NVRC to support recreation and trail activities in Northern Virginia. You can find more information here: Maps | Northern Virginia Regional Commission - Website (novaregion.org). In particular, key regional trails and connections are missing in the hub, including the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, a vital connection in the region that NVRC has an extensive dashboard on, found here: Potomac Heritage Trail | Northern Virginia Regional Commission| NPS (potomacheritagenova.com). Road based byways also appear to have a greater weight than multiuse trails and recreational routes and resources in your mapping.   

Ultimately, we hope that the final plan will reflect that different regions of the Commonwealth have varying priorities. In particular, Northern Virginia does not have the hunting and off-roading resources found in other regions of the state. We do, however, have a densely populated region with a huge demand for more outdoor active and passive recreation, as evidenced by the enormous demand during the pandemic.  Further, recreation resources are not as safely accessed by some of our communities that could benefit greatly from safer access, due to high-speed roads and other barriers. We hope these recommendations will be considered and we offer our help if you’d like to receive more engagement and input in the region on priorities, recommendations, and feedback. 

 Thank you for the opportunity to comment,

NVRC Staff