Robin Finnacom of Comunity Development Corportation, tasked with redeveloping Lexington Park, practices with Lego

 If you think Lego means light-hearted fun you haven’t seen adults play with them on a regional map!

On Thursday approximately 150 elected officials, governmental staff, community, civic and business leaders from Charles, St. Mary’s and Calvert Counties gathered at St. Mary’s College of Maryland to take part in the visioning exercise Reality Check Plus. The exercise endeavored to have participants negotiate a blueprint for regional and statewide (the Southern Maryland was the final of four exercises across Maryland) growth based on actual demographic, geographic and economic data assembled for the event.“

Southern Maryland can expect to see a 56% growth in jobs and a 80% growth in households between 2000 and 2030,” 

 
 St. Mary’s County Commissioner President Tommy McKay squeezes in for a peek at the Lego laiden county

Frank Jaklitsch, former Calvert County Planning Director, and Southern Maryland Regional Reality Check Plus Leadership Committee Co-Chair, told the Bay Net in an earlier interview. 

The participants were divided into tables designed to evenly distribute members from businesses, public organizations and non-profits, and elected officials, as well as to achieve an equal representation from each county. A facilitator was at each table to assist, and each person at the table was given pieces of Lego, representing workforce, industrial/commercial development, and residential development.

  First they came to a consensus on principals for laying the Legos, then they placed their pieces, and finally the tables were asked to discuss the implications of what they had created on the maps. The maps had no county lines, as part of an effort to encourage regional rather than local thinking, but place names and critical areas were clearly marked in. The number of Lego distributed was based on projections for the increase in homes and jobs in Southern Maryland by 2030.

 
 What are they doing?

 All tables managed to reach consensus and lay all of their Legos in the allotted time, but there was much discussion along the way. Environmentalists, citizens’ organizations, and church representatives faced business owners and politicians as they built different visions of the future together.

Some were baffled by the logic of others. “I am just amazed to see what they’re doing with this,” Bill Scarafia told the Bay Net at one table. There was also some politicking at play. Scarafia pointed out one participant with an over-sized stack of unlaid bricks. “This guy’s waiting to see what the people from the other two counties do with their Lego, and then he’s going to put all his over there,”