Prince William County is no longer a suburban afterthought on the edge of Northern Virginia. It is a county of nearly half a million residents, multiple economic centers and communities with very different identities and needs.
But it is governed as a single, centralized jurisdiction by seven supervisors and the chair, who make decisions regarding housing developments, data centers and grand plans for new shopping or mixed-use projects. One size, increasingly, does not fit all.
It’s time for Prince William to seriously consider whether creating new cities would strengthen, not weaken, local governance…