ULI Arizona and 300 Arizonans Conduct a Reality Check on Growth at May 16th Event

Convening diverse stakeholders to work together regarding difficult land use issues is an Urban Land Institute mission objective. On May 16, 2008, this mission objective was accomplished when AZ One, a Reality Check for Central Arizona, was held at the Phoenix Convention Center. Initiated over two years ago by ULI Arizona, the event was a collaboration of the State of Arizona, the Governor’s Growth Cabinet and 18 additional public, private, and civic alliances, including Arizona State University, Central Arizona Association of Governments (CAAG), East Valley Partnership, Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG), The Nature Conservancy, Valley Forward Association, WESTMARC, and others. The purpose of the exercise was to analyze and develop alternative growth scenarios for the rapidly growing Central Arizona region. Ideas, trends, dialogue, advocacy, consensus, diversity, urgency, and the need for regional planning and cooperation were identified as significant factors in preparing for growth.
300 diverse stakeholders who were selected through a nomination process participated in the morning’s visioning exercise. Over 1,100 Arizonans were nominated to participate. Thirty teams of ten each placed Legos® on regional maps to indicate where they thought the next 6 million residents in Arizona will live and work. Stakeholders included representatives of state and municipal governments, business and the development community and community-based organizations and non-profits.
Robert Grow, founding chair emeritus of Envision Utah, who has participated in a similar exercises in over 50 regions of the country, provided opening remarks.
The afternoon program featured a keynote address by ASU President Michael Crow and a panel of sustainability experts: David Stangis of Intel on the role of business and sustainability; Delia Carlyle of the Ak Chin Indian Community on tribal communities; Grady Gammage, Jr. of Gammage & Burnham and the Morrison Institute on water and development; Martin Shultz of Pinnacle West and the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission on transportation issues; and Betsey Bayless of Maricopa Integrated Health System on community, education, and health.
Reality Check is intended to be a commencement exercise leading toward consensus building about regional land use. There was a clear mandate from participants that action within the next six months to a year is important. A post-event implementation committee to be co-chaired by Don Keuth and Andy Laurenzi has been created. Moving AZ One will implement the shared vision over the next 18 months. Three post-implementation sub-committees are being formed:
A more comprehensive report of the Reality Check findings will be included in the September issue of Arizona Report, and will be a feature of the ULI Arizona Fall Real Estate Conference on September 9th at the Arizona Biltmore.

Find out more at http://azonefuture.com/