Reality Check First Coast

By the year 2060, 1.6 million* additional people will be living in our Region, requiring the addition of new jobs and housing to accommodate this growth. As a region, we have choices to make. Where will development occur? How will we maintain open spaces and our natural resources? What will our transportation and infrastructure needs be? Those questions were considered at Reality Check First Coast.

At the Reality Check event, regional leaders were challenged to rethink where and how to grow the First Coast in a way that adds value to the local economy, while preserving our environment and quality of life. Participants divided into groups of eight to 10 will discuss and allocate housing and job growth throughout the First Coast. The First Coast consists of seven counties, including Baker, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns — and their 27 municipalities.

By placing Lego® bricks on large-scale regional maps, they constructed their scenarios and were able to determine the impact of their collective vision. The results of each team’s map were tabulated and the collective results were presented at an afternoon session with a wider group of regional leaders and interested parties.

To create a regional consensus that includes a variety of viewpoints, participants reflected both the geography and diversity of the First Coast. Participants were selected from open nominations and invited to participate in the visioning exercise. They represented business, economic development, government, academia, environmental and social services, professional and trade organizations, neighborhood and civic groups, and nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.

*Note: 1.6 million new residents and 650,000 new jobs by 2060 are conservative projections based on trend analysis done for 1000 Friends of Florida by the GeoPlan Center at the University of Florida, and a modified econometric model done by the Northeast Florida Regional Council.

Reality Check First Coast is neither a traditional conference nor a theoretical exercise.

It's a chance to put aside preconceived notions and jurisdiction in order to develop a vision for how we want our region to look, grow and prosper.

The exercise is designed to:

   * Raise awareness of projected levels of region-wide growth

   * Lay the foundation for the development of a concrete list of next steps to meet the region’s future job, housing, transportation, infrastructure and recreational needs