Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Virginia Annexations As Metropolitan Reform Movements : Are They Obsolete?, Demetra Yeapanis Kontos

Master's Theses

The proliferation of local governments and single-purpose regional governmental districts has given local and state government administrators throughout the country many problems. The multiplicity of governments exacerbates conflicts of authority, duplication of services, inadequate service levels, and many other problems. Three basic metropolitan reforms have been implemented to solve these problems: consolidation, disintegration and regional organization. Each of these types of reform has been implemented in Virginia. The most controversial of these reforms is annexation, a form of consolidation where an independent city annexes county land. What contributes to the controversy of annexation movements is that unlike most states, Virginia's …