To counterbalance the move to suburbs and nearby rural areas, urban local units of government seek to annex surrounding land from counties or nearby cities. In Virginia, annexation is determined by a panel of three judges, only one of whom is a resident of the county involved. No referendum is held to ascertain the wishes of the residents of the area under consideration because of the belief that annexation should be based on the need of the majority of the people concerned. While annexation may be an answer to the urban government's need for extending its tax base, county units lose their prime tax property. Over a period of time, the continued growth of the metropolitan area causes persons to locate outside of the revised boundaries and the process of annexation starts over again. In addition to annexation, another method available whereby an urban unit may extend its boundaries is consolidation of local units. An example is the merger of a city government unit and a county government unit into a revised city government unit. In Virginia, consolidation statutes are relatively flexible: officials of both units negotiate between themselves to reach an agreement on the authority of the new local unit of government, in contrast to annexation where the county government is often forced against its will to give up valuable real estate. The growth of metropolitan areas has raised a serious challenge to the ability of local units of government to provide adequate government services to their residents at reasonable costs. Unless further understanding is developed among the citizenry involved, the impact of metropolitanism will continue to result in serious inequities among individual local units of government. S U M M A R Y By April 1861, the Commonwealth of Virginia had furnished one-third of all the Presidents of the United States, had had numerous other Virginian leaders in high federal positions, had been responsible for the calling of a "Peace Conference" in the nation's capital and had been most reluctant to vote for secession from the Union. However, the inhabitants of Virginia believed in the doctrine of "States' Rights," in non-interference of slavery by the federal government and in not coercing neighboring seceded states back into the Union via invasion. Consequently, Virginia joined the Confederacy, and Richmond soon became the Confederate capital and the State of Virginia a huge battlefield.