It is the same kind of expressway built in hundreds of other cities from coast to coast - to their regret. If we can learn anything from the last half-century of American urban history, it is that these expressways kill neighborhoods and hasten downtown blight. By lavishing our limited penny sales tax funds on a project that creates no such new jobs, it delays much more urgently needed road projects. Tallahassee Chamber leaders and others have long noted the lack of sites in Leon County for large commercial and light industrial enterprises. Southwood developers plan to offer 250 acres for industry, but only in its second 10-year phase, between the years 2010 and 2020.
Innovation Park is available only for research enterprises.
As a result, our south and west sides can accommodate almost none of the commercial and light industrial enterprises they are well suited for. Building there is barred by concurrency requirements that rightly require adequate roads and other infrastructure before more development can occur. Concurrency requirements barred construction of a new office building for Watkins near northwest Capital Circle. We prevented the loss of those jobs only by waiving the concurrency requirement, a painful decision that is a measure of how badly we need high-value economic growth. We cannot afford to make any more such exceptions.