The quandary has been years in the making, but the growth of North Suffolk has brought it to a head in recent years.

How should folks refer to the area roughly centered on the intersection of Route 17 and I-664? It is an area that encompasses parts of Suffolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth, an area that could almost be its own self-sufficient small city, considering the variety of businesses, restaurants, housing developments, apartment complexes, retail outlets and entertainment venues that are available there.

Such an arrangement would almost certainly be an unpalatable one in terms of taxes and services, but the idea has been gaining traction for many years that folks in what was dubbed in an article on Sunday as “SuChesMouth” have just about everything else that they need.

Long before Harbour View had risen from the dirt, there was the Chesapeake Square area, which was a destination for folks from all over Suffolk, but had become the default entertainment and shopping destination of an ever-growing number of families from North Suffolk. And even before the first parking lot was opened in Chesapeake Square, Churchland had defined the concept of one community that was split between two (or three) cities.

Today, those areas and Harbour View form a triangle of commerce and residential communities where folks travel from one store to another, often without realizing they’ve crossed city lines. To a very real degree, the people who live in those communities have more in common with one another than they do with those who live in the core parts of their own cities. The connection with their host cities is tenuous anytime other than tax time.

Ask someone from The Riverfront, for example, where he lives, and you’re far more likely to hear “Harbour View” in response than “Suffolk.” Renters in Churchland might not even know what city they’re in until they have to get their water service connected or enroll their children in school.

The triangle described by the three communities of Harbour View, Churchland and Chesapeake Square has in many ways become its own community, lacking only a name to make it official. City planners in Suffolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth might bemoan the loss of identity, but for many of that community’s residents, there never was a connection to begin with, as they’ve moved to the area from other places.

In the long run, what the area is called might be of little importance. Far more important to planners should be determining how to capitalize on the growth of those areas. The ripples that spread from one new development or shopping center spread quickly from one of these communities to the next, and understanding the inter-relatedness of all three is paramount to good community planning.

Officials in all three cities surely have their work cut out for them.