GREENVILLE —With the economy becoming more and more global, it’s difficult for one city or even one county to gain notice with its needs. More and more, public entities are having to work together as a region for the benefit of all involved.

That’s the thinking behind Upstate Reality Check, a special one-day event April 8 at the Carolina First Center.

The event will feature approximately 400 people from 10 Upstate counties working together to envision how the region will absorb a projected 234,000 new residents, 118,000 new households and 302,000 new jobs over the next 22 years.

The people participating will come from a wide range of backgrounds – elected officials, community and business leaders, environmental and housing experts, etc.

“We want a wide range of opinions coming in,” said Judith Prince, vice-chair of the Upstate Together Regional Steering Committee and a vice-chancellor of USC Upstate. “We don’t want to just hear from elected leaders. We want to hear from everybody who has a stake in this.”

Prince said the projected growth is almost a certainty.

“It’s not a question of ‘Will we grow?’” she said. “It’s ‘How will we grow?’”

The Reality Check program was developed by the Urban Land Institute. The mission of the program is to bring together stake holds and build an action plan for working regionally to manage growth in ways that are economically viable and environmentally sustainable.

Prince said she wanted to make sure people understand this is not a land management exercise.

“People get the wrong idea, thinking this is some form of zoning or land management,” she said. “In reality, it has nothing to do with that.”

The goal is not just to prepare for what is coming, but to preserve what we already have, Prince said.

“Our legacy to our children and their children depends on overall health of our region, not just our hometown,” she said. “We want to be sure not to mess up what we have, with the mountains and the lakes of the Upstate.”

The first thing the group will do is discuss what basic principles of growth all participants can agree on. About 10 will be selected, although that number is likely to be narrows down to three or four.

The participants will then work at tables with a maps of the region and use Lego blocks to represent population centers. They will try to determine what should be done about the upcoming population growth, based on the principles discussed earlier.

The Upstate region includes Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg and Union counties. Representatives from each county are on the steering committee for the event.

From Pickens County, representatives are Gerald Sweitzer, co-chair of Pickens County Vision 2025; Andy Westbrook, President and CEO of Peoples National Bank; and Charles Dalton.

Dalton, President of Blue Ridge Electric Co-Op, is used to dealing with problems on a regional basis as the co-op supplies power in five Upstate counties.

“We have been hurt in the past because we have not worked together as a region,” Dalton said. “Federal grants often go to a region, not just a county.”

Prince said one goal of the Upstate Reality Check is to develop trust among the region.

“We’ve looked inward for a long time,” she said. “I think we have an independence in the Upstate that keeps us from working with our neighbors. We’re hoping we can channel that energy we’ve been using to work separately and put it toward working together for the entire region.”

“Trust is a big word,” Dalton said. “But nobody is trying to undermine anybody with this.”

Dalton said that while “planning” sometimes seems to be a dirty word in the Upstate, he feels its necessary for people to put aside any differences for this exercise.

“Without some planning, it’s coming to become what you don’t want it to be,” Dalton said.

Two examples of the kind of growth we don’t want are nearby, Dalton said: Atlanta and Charlotte.

“Experts say that in 10 years, our area could look like Charlotte,” Dalton said. And 20 years from not it could look like Atlanta.”

The Reality Check event is simply a way to develop a template for future action.

“It is really just the beginning,” Prince said. “The people who participate will be the ones who determine where we go from there.”

Prince said anyone can nominate somebody to be a participant by going to the website, www.upstaterealitycheck.com. People can even nominate themselves.