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Summit examines issues facing rural coastal communities

Last Thursday marked the first Rural Coastal Virginia Community Enhancement Authority Summit, as House Bill 2055 established the authority consisting of 12 counties across the Middle Peninsula, Northern Neck, Accomack and Northampton planning districts.

The event was held in Watermen’s Hall on the Gloucester Point campus of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

The summit was spearheaded by Del. Keith Hodges (R-Urbanna) who ensured the attendance of members of local and state government across the region. “We want to reframe the socioeconomic landscape,” said Hodges in his opening remarks, “By bringing you here we want to showcase who rural coastal Virginia is.”

Hodges identified what he saw as “a different set of rules” for urban and rural areas and was of the opinion that legislators in Richmond do not fully understand “the realities of the RPA” (referring to the Resource Protection Area around local waters) and its proximi...

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