in 1963, after approval by referendum of the voters of the city of virginia beach and princess anne county, and with the approval of the virginia general assembly, the two political subdivisions were consolidated as a new, much larger independent city, retaining the better-known name of the virginia beach resort. they needed to do this because of virginia law states that a city and a county can not merge. they got past that by attaching the bill to the already large virginia state budget. about the same time, at similar risk of annexations, norfolk county took similar action, consolidating with the small independent city of south norfolk and forming another new city. the city of chesapeake became virginia beach's new neighbor to the southwest.