Tallahassee recently lost a passionate ecologist.
Pamela Hall earned a doctoral degree in Tropical Forest Ecology, but she was well-known as an expert and activist in land use planning, transportation, and wastewater in Leon County.
“Just a few days before she died, she was working hard on the issue with the Northeast Parkway…Welaunee Boulevard that connects basically Thomasville Road to Welaunee. She didn't quite live to see anything final, but those of us that are still here, we're carrying on and we invoke her name every day,” laughs longtime friend Kathy Archibald, who worked alongside Hall for years on growth management issues, including a campaign known as Keep It Rural.
Archibald was with Hall when she died. “She could communicate with the politicians; she could communicate with the neighbors. She was passionate about everything that she stood for and everything that she engaged in. I can't really quantify what we've lost,” says Archibald through tears. “It hasn't completely sunk in that she's gone.”
Hall also left her mark on more recent friendships. Kelly Otte ran for the Leon County Commission last year. She sought guidance from Hall about growth and development issues.
“It's been a while since I've been enthralled by somebody, and that's the word that I would use with her,” says Otte. “She took me to this table, and she had laid out all of these maps that showed Leon County, and she just started to talk. She would tell me what she thought ought to happen. But then she would tell me what the argument against that would be.”
Otte says Hall “was pretty ill by that time, but I stayed with her for probably three hours.” After that, Otte says the two spoke weekly and constantly texted each other. Even after Otte lost the election, they stayed in touch until shortly before Hall’s death from cancer on February 22nd.
Hall spoke with us about a Leon County zoning issue in July of 2018. Here is some of what she shared:
“If you don’t want development around you, do not ask for the road to be widened. They don’t widen it so that you can travel 45 miles unimpeded for 10 years. They widen it so 10,000 new people can come up there and travel.”
“If you’re trying to create a community that supports everyone, I have this basic rule. Communities should be able to support anyone who’s 8 and anyone who’s 80 without the need for the 45-year-old to drive them around.”
“There’s an implication that the people who live in houses not like mine are going to disrupt the quality of my life because they aren’t like me. I don’t think your quality of life is disturbed because someone builds a house that’s different from yours on a different size lot a little ways away from you.”
Pamela Hall was 64. Services are pending.
