Address to Florida Engineering Society

How many engineers in this room have ever worked as a government employee?
How many have worked in the private sector on government-contracted projects?

That’s just about everybody.

I think this demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between government and the engineering profession. Sadly, the relationship between the government and engineers has been a tense one, sometimes even adversarial, in the years since the rise of environmentalism has led us to question the engineering priorities of the past. But this tension, I believe, between environmentalists and engineers is artificial, and is now giving way to creative partnerships between government and the engineering profession.

In his book, The Existential Pleasures of Engineering, engineer Samuel C. Florman describes the years of 1850 to 1950 as the "Golden Years" of engineering. He says that before 1850 there had been many fine engineers and many outstanding engineering works, but that engineering itself had been a craft rather than a profession, relying more on common sense and time-honored experience than on the application of scientific principles. He suggests that engineering became a true profession in the modern sense of the word – when it developed its own professional schools and professional societies – what Florman calls "the essentials of professionalism."

After 1950, says Florman, engineering entered into a dark age of criticism and self-doubt. Florman attributes this to the cultural processes which demanded more and more of the engineering profession. Vast suburbanization and the massive interstate highway system come to mind. But, as Florman suggests, the works of the engineering profession are merely a reflection of our civilization. When society criticizes the engineering profession, it is really criticizing itself.

I believe that together we are now entering a new era in the history of the engineering profession. With the advancement of urban and regional planning as a primary focus of government projects, I think that engineers will, in the eyes of the public, take their rightful place at the forefront of our civilization.

I believe that this will occur right her, in our community, when our citizens see firsthand how the engineering profession can improve their lives and contribute in a very positive way to our culture. I’m talking, of course, about the BLUEPRINT 2000 initiative, which is a broad vision for our community, and which will depend on the leadership and creativity of you, the engineers of the Big Bend Region, to become a reality.

Tallahassee faces unique challenges to respond to our rapid growth while protecting our environmental heritage. Past development practices regarding stormwater management and over-concentration of developments in the north were combined with lack of investment in the south and transportation facilities countywide. Currently, we are playing "catch-up" with these issues by using regulatory and planning strategies that are disincentive based, reactionary and are ill fitted to our diverse community. Our future should now be based on a strategic plan that answers our current problems and addresses the future of our community’s physical and economic health.

As you all are probably aware, developments along the Thomasville Road corridor have grown three times as fast as the rest of Tallahassee and Leon County since 1970. The state government boom of the 70s and 80s provided a false sense of economic security. It is possible to see how misplaced I-10 is now, providing easy access to northern neighborhoods while marooning the most promising industrial and commercial property on rural two-lane Capital Circle, miles to the south. Flooding remains a problem throughout the county and our lakes are increasingly polluted. Our forest canopy is disappearing and traffic flow is locked-up all over town.

In Tallahassee/Leon County, we have a complex relationship between overlapping governmental jurisdictions, our institutions of higher learning, our environment and our people. In addition, there is a general agreement in this community that the defining the natural characteristics of this land must be preserved as healthy economic growth occurs. Consensus on how to proceed with the job of building our future has remained elusive. But now a framework for balance has been reached between the pro-growth and pro-environment communities in Leon County by the citizen-run Economic and Environmental Consensus Committee. This group of community leaders and neighborhood activists has developed a new vision for our future which will promote healthy economic growth and protect our environmental heritage. It is called BLUEPRINT 2000 AND BEYOND.

BLUEPRINT 2000 recognizes that our most important choices and challenges are obvious and interconnected. Residential development in the north and east has skewed development patterns in those areas, as limited growth has occurred in the southern areas of the county. Market forces, physical features and policy direction have all contributed to the current situation. Our hardwood and pine uplands in the north, northeast and east also contain the historical transportation "spokes" which connect us to our region. The National Forrest, timberlands, and wetlands in the southern areas, coupled with the lack of infrastructure investment has added to the market forces in the north, maintaining this cycle.

There are five major challenges which Leon County must face, and which BLUEPRINT 2000 addresses:

Based on the Committee’s analysis, understanding and deliberation of the community’s challenges, BLUEPRINT 2000 outlines five initiatives which will depend on cooperation between the city and the county, and also on the symbiotic relationship between local government and the engineering community, in order to be successful:

The first is Watershed and Sector level planning processes. It is up to us to prepare sector plans for identified lands within watersheds which have potential for new development and infill redevelopment. We must also adopt a Joint Comprehensive Water Resources Plan. Currently the city is primarily responsible for urban stormwater, and the County is responsible for lakes. This situation creates confusion for engineers and planners, and inhibits necessary coordination between the city, the county and developers.

Second is the need for Holistic infrastructure development approaches. We should employ creative "new thinking" approaches for transportation and stormwater systems to include alternative modes (such as transit greenways), as well as demand management techniques and watershed specific standards. We should also identify and obtain pre-development approvals of target locations for mixed-use development areas containing two new business parks. We must also protect floodplains, build wet detention facilities for retrofit, create flowways, protect and restore lakes in the Bradford, Jackson, Lafayette, Munson and St. Marks watersheds to combine structural and nonstructural systems for water quality improvement and flood prevention.

Third, is corridor level implementation of projects. This includes improvements to transportation infrastructure at strategic portions of Orange Avenue, Crawfordville Highway, Springhill Road, South Adams Street, US 90 East, Tram Road and Capital Circle. It also includes expanding floodplain protection by using innovative methods in addition to acquisition, such as conservation easements, management agreements, conservation zoning, land banking and purchases from willing sellers -- in addition to regulation. We should also consider alternate transit success stories in similar communities and determine the feasibility of implementing a prototype project here.

The fourth initiative outlined in BLUEPRINT 2000 involves the Southern Strategy Area. We must provide economic development incentives for southern Leon County, including a "30/20/10 Program" for ad valorem taxes in Innovation Park and two proposed new parks, one point entry, fast track permitting, reduced fees and infrastructure fee waivers, as well as guaranteed state grant matches. We should also develop and implement a package of incentives for residential development and redevelopment to include waving permit fees, low interest loans, code enforcement and property tax relief. Also, we should pursue specific demonstration and grant funds for the Southern Strategy Area to test recommended initiatives and develop model elements for future programs and projects.

Finally, and most importantly, we have to develop the fiscal resources to fund this broad vision of our county’s future. Our local governments should continue to pursue substantive funding options and arrangements with State and Federal agencies to promote buy-in, and look to the legislature for direct assistance for projects need in our area. We also need an interlocal agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation to establish a new baseline of intergovernmental coordination and cooperation to assure the most effective management of our fiscal and personnel resources.

And lastly, we must approve the local option extension to the existing penny sales tax to generate the additional funds needed for development of the transportation and water resource infrastructure projects presented by BLUEPRINT 2000. Our community needs this extension to invest in our future while ensuring that the visitors to Tallahassee that periodically take over our town and use our infrastructure -- students, football fans, the Legislature and their entourage of lobbyists and staff, will pay their fair share of the burden. We need to get on this now, because the existing sales tax will expire in 2004. With this, BLUEPRINT 2000 recommends and I support a Citizen’s Oversight Committee to review and monitor the design, cost and progress of the capital improvements projects.

Now, as you can tell, this is going to take a lot of work. It will also create a lot of work for Big Bend area engineers. As such, the BLUEPRINT 2000 vision will require a solid partnership between government and the engineering profession. We know that the initiates outlined in BLUEPRINT 2000 will be good for the environment, good for business and good for our culture. It is an exercise not just in planning and construction, but in the humanities as well, and I look forward to working with all of you in this ambitious endeavor.