A group of area government and business leaders is announcing today the names of people it thinks can shape a bold idea: creating a vision for central Virginia that might actually be put in place.

After years of studies, plans and publicly floated initiatives, the two sources of many of those ideas joined forces in May to create the Capital Region Collaborative. The group includes members from the government-based Richmond Regional Planning District Commission and the business-led Greater Richmond Chamber.

The CRC today is naming the members of its first advisory team. The eight government and six business leaders will ultimately be joined by 40 or so others on a team charged with shaping a workable vision for the area's future.

"This region does not lack in strategic plans," said William J. Pantele, the president of the Richmond City Council and the city's representative on the group. "I think what makes this different is, for the first time, elected leadership has joined the strategic planning process so there can be a voice that is one.

"Only elected leadership and the top government administrators actually have the ability to make whatever is desired happen," he said.

The great disconnect in the past, he said, has been that though many of the strategic plans for the area included credible, if a bit enthusiastic, ideas, they never got much traction because the people behind them didn't have the ability to put them into action.

"A vision without the capability of being implemented really can't be much more than an aspiration," he said. "But a vision with the capability of being implemented can lead to real action. That's what people want."

The inclusive nature of the group is the key to its success, Theodore L. Chandler Jr., the chairman and CEO of LandAmerica Financial Group, said in a statement.

"We are most fortunate to have the active participation of so many of our region's most thoughtful leaders, individuals whose experience and expertise will be critical in helping move the capital region forward," said Chandler, the outgoing chairman of the Greater Richmond Chamber.

The work the group will undertake, he said, will "ultimately impact all of us, now and for generations to come."
Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or zreid@timesdispatch.com.