In a press conference on November 10, business and public officials announced that a visioning exercise for regional land use will be held on May 17, 2012.  The event, called “Reality Check,” will be conducted by the Urban Land Institute, the E.V. Williams Center for Real Estate and Economic Development at Old Dominion University, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, and the Hampton Roads Partnership. 

The event, to be held at ODU’s Ted Constant Center in Norfolk, plans to gather 300 people from the development, government, military, agriculture, environmental, transportation and other sectors to envision how the region might absorb an additional 350,000 residents by 2035.  “We need a Reality Check here,” Stan Clark, chairman of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, said in a statement.  “We have lots of data and projections, but having real people spend time looking at a map of the entire region … and then decide where they think residential , commercial and transportation growth ought to take place will be eye opening.”

The “Reality Check” exercise already has been done in Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Charleston, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Raleigh-Durham.  Participants will come from organizations that have stepped forward to endorse the event, such as the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and planning groups.  The U S. Navy also will participate and civic groups are expected to add their voices. Members of the general public with an interest in land use can nominate themselves for participation at http://www.realitycheckhr.org