On June 4, 2013, at the Charlotte Convention Center, RealityCheck2050 brought together 400 participants from the 14-county CONNECT Our Future region to help to prepare potential options for regional growth, with a focus on accommodating projected housing and jobs through 2050. This collaborative event jointly sponsored by the Centralina Council of Governments and ULI was not about speeches, presentations, political theory or planning concepts. Participants were challenged to make decisions about density, growth and change in the region. The exercise pushed participants to see the connection between the choices we make and their unintended consequences.

RealityCheck2050 is a part of the CONNECT Our Future project which engages the 14-county region in a process to develop a regional growth framework to help leaders and residents to grow jobs and the economy, improve quality of life and control the cost of government. This public engagement event will begin the hands-on Scenario Planning Process and will help us begin to prepare potential options for regional growth, with a focus on accommodating the growth of housing and jobs through 2050. The results from this full-day event will be incorporated into the CONNECT Our Future process to develop alternative growth scenarios for regional growth.

RealityCheck2050 not only brought together regional leaders and citizens to speak about the issues but also provided participants with an active learning experience that can significantly change their preconceived notions about those issues.

The feature event of RealityCheck2050 was an exciting, collaborative, appropriately named, “Gameday” held at the Charlotte Convention Center. It was a hands-on, timed game where 40 tables of 10 community stakeholders placed different colored Legos on a large map of our 14 county region under the guidance of professional facilitators. Lego colors represented new residents and jobs over the next 35 years. Each player connected these residents and jobs with a limited supply of string which will represent various modes of transportation.

RealityCheck2050 is a part of the CONNECT Our Future process which is a Sustainable Communities initiative, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD

Materials from Tuesday, June 4:

• The Participant Guide (pdf)
• A regular copy of the map we will be using (to become acclimated)
• A VERY high resolution copy map (pdf).
• CONNECT Our Future Final Report
• RC2050 Final Report
• RealityCheck2050 and CONNECT Our Future