Reality Check - The Results

Reality Check, a regional planning exercise sponsored by ULI Triangle and Triangle Tomorrow, was held on February 24th at the Convention Center in downtown Raleigh. On the 27th, approximately 450 people gathered to hear the results from the big event. The summit was an opportunity to hear from folks who have successfully led the effort to grow in a sustainable way in other cities, as well as a summation of all the tables from the exercise. And, to my delight, there were performances by local production company, DSI Comedy Theatre.

There were local and state government officials, business leaders, citizens, participants, facilitators, and municipal planners. While the Reality Check event itself is a 'think tank' type of exercise, we were dealing with issues that have significant long-term effects on the 15 county area of the Triangle. With 1.2 million people projected to move to this area, we have to make decisions now to plan for future growth. As one of the speakers commented, the growth of a region is directly related to transportation options. Remember that next time we have a referendum or other opportunity to vote for mass transportation funding.

At the results summit, all 30 tables from the Reality Check exercise were distilled down to four different categories. All four scenarios had growth planned out in various ways - ranging from sprawl to clustered development. Everyone was given an electronic voting device to provide instant feedback on the favored growth pattern, as well as other survey questions. A majority of people voted for the smart growth option, with the sprawl option coming in last place. It should be noted that all four examples highlighted at the Summit were much better than our current pattern. Everyone should be commended for their effort and attention to setting a vision for the region.

The takeaways from the day: 1. transportation is an integral part to smart growth, no matter how the growth is planned (80% of the tables listed transportation as a guiding principle for how they planned out the growth in their simulation), 2. 90% of people in the room voted to raise taxes to pay for alternate forms of transportation (yes, I said 90%!!), and 3. the biggest road blocks to growth are regional governance (read: leadership) and lack of infrastructure funding.

Any guesses as to how quickly our house and senate officials will draft a bill to fund the $8 billion light rail proposal by the Special Transit Advisory Commission? Will this effort be more successful than the dysfunctional plan proposed in 2004? Hopefully so - it is clear after this Reality Check event that mass transit is the critical component to a successful growth strategy.

And, for your comic relief, here is the video by the very talented DSI Comedy Theater. Reality Check Parody: