by David Chapman
Staff Writer
Businesses, homes and roads are planned on design pads or computer programs — not yellow and red Legos or different colored yarn.
But more than 300 area government, nonprofit and business officials took a “time-out” Thursday to take part in the Realty Check First Coast “Game Day” exercise that aimed at bringing different industry leaders together to help promote the idea of effective and conducive regional growth.
Realty Check First Coast was created by the Urban Land Institute to promote and discuss alternative growth scenarios for the region through the year 2060 while recognizing different views. The event culminated a yearlong process of information gathering from the region.
Held at World Golf Village, officials were split into groups of 10 and placed the Legos — representing both population and business growth — and yarn — representing transportation and preservation areas — on a regional map to showcase how they believed the area should grow.
“We really want to elevate the conversation about regional growth and do it in a cooperative manner with everyone involved,” said Rob Palmer, Urban Land Institute member and co-chair of the event’s steering committee. “It is about getting people from all the different sectors, people who might not normally talk to each other about this type of thing, and have them share their ideas and do it in a visual manner.”
The visual aspect of the exercise appealed strongly to one of the participants who admitted to “having a blast” working with his teammates and plotting a growth course.
“You get such a different perspective working together,” said City Council member Bill Bishop. “What I am taking out of it is physical representation of what we (teammates and he) want to do and where we want to go in terms of growth ... so many times people just talk about growth plans but it’s hard to really see ... If I can see it, it helps.”
The all-day exercise was broken into the teamwork and planning aspect in the morning with results digitized and discussed during the afternoon session.
“It’s an exercise to show that we can and are working regionally,” said Brian Teeple, executive director of the Northeast Florida Regional Council. “It’s about the spirit of cooperation and in the 24 years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen the spirit and cooperation that I see now.”
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