The Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission has brought $23 million in funding to the Middle Peninsula since 2020 to develop programs for the region. That’s more than the agency had previously secured since it was established in 1968, said a press release.

“We’ve had more multi-million-dollar grants in the last 24 months than we have had in the last 50 years of the agency,” said Lewie Lawrence, MPPDC’s executive director. “These funds are a direct expenditure into the community, impacting employment, quality of life, and the overall tax base of the Middle Peninsula. The momentum has built and the snowball is rolling.”

MPPDC is one of 23 regional planning commissions in Virginia charged with promoting 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, said the release.

“What that boils down to, in reality,” Lawrence said, “is we work to ensure th...