On April 15th, HRPDC staff conducted an Envision Hampton Roads listening session, complete with a mapping exercise, at the Virginia Peninsula Association Realtors’ membership meeting. The meeting drew a standing-room only crowd number of over 80 realtors.
 
Following the VPARS business meeting, Jai McBride, HRPDC Principal Regional Planner and Envision Hampton Roads project manager, provided the realtors an over view of the region’s first collaborative long-term regional planning process. She explained the goal is the establishment of a shared Regional Vision that will ultimately create a blueprint for the Region’s future and create a Hampton Roads that is a great place to live, work, play, learn, and visit. To get to these shared values attendees broke out into teams and were asked to answer three questions:

1.What community values or characteristics do you think have best defined the Hampton Roads region historically?
2.What community values or characteristics would you like Hampton Roads to be more associated with in the future?
3.Of all the values listed today, what are the top five most worth protecting in Hampton Roads – the values that demonstrate or could demonstrate our “best self” as a region?

While the HRPDC staff tabulated the top five values for the room, attendees were instructed to begin the mapping exercise. Teams were instructed to keep in mind the values they came up with while identifying their ideal Hampton Roads. Using markers to symbolize transportation options (i.e roads, highways, mass transit, bridges, tunnels, etc.) and stickers to symbolize land use (i.e, residential, commercial, cultural activity, & entertainment activity), the realtors enthusiastically plotted out their vision for Hampton Roads.

Following the Top Five Values reveal (See call out box), the teams shared their maps with the group. The values collected will be included with those collected from the over 25 previous Envision Hampton Roads listening sessions. Envision Hampton Roads expects to launch a region-wide community values phone survey in late April-early May. A results and analysis report is expected this summer.