Wren Krahl, Executive Director, Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council

Invest: sat down with Wren Krahl, executive director of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council (TBRPC), to understand the resilience efforts underway in West Florida and how the council is playing a leading role. Krahl also highlighted how recent hurricanes have shifted public perception on infrastructure investment. “In the past, there was resistance to spending on infrastructure updates, but after experiencing back-to-back storms, the perspective has changed,” she said.

How did the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council get started?

Well, to give you an idea of how long I’ve been involved in this realm, I was around when the Tampa Bay Partnership was formed. Our organization itself is something quite amazing in that it was formed in 1962. On Feb. 16, we will be 63 years old, which is amazing for a local government entity.

The RPC was founded in 1962 by a real character named Herman Goldner, who was the mayor of St. Petersburg at the time. He was hilarious — always had a pipe in his mouth and a beautiful girl standing next to him. He was not only the mayor of St. Pete but also an attorney by trade and quite a visionary. He worked with Tampa and Clearwater and said, “We’re going to grow into a megalopolis. If you guys don’t start working together, we’re going to be in real trouble.” 

Since 1962, the organization has been focused on resilience, though it’s gone by different names over the years. Even during my tenure, which spans 27 or 28 years, the topic of regionalism has only really come into its own in the last decade. Before that, we worked in silos. For example, we have 23 municipalities and six counties in our region, and if Largo wanted to build a new road, it would certainly impact Clearwater. Tackling issues of regional significance has been our focus over the years, including everything from economic development and emergency management to the environment, natural resources, and transportation.

What has been a key takeaway since becoming the council’s executive director in December 2023?

I was honored to take on this role. It’s personal for me, as my mother was the first female executive director of a regional planning council, both in the nation and in the state of Florida. So, I have a bit of a legacy to uphold. I might even venture to say I could be the only daughter of a regional planning council executive director to hold this role myself. I was one of those weird teenagers who knew what regional planning and urban design were, and I grew into this field and came to love it.

Today, we have a phenomenal staff, and the technologies available to us now are incredible. We’re integrating cutting-edge tools like 3D visualization modeling into our programs. For instance, in Madeira Beach, we helped residents reimagine John’s Pass using 3D technology. At our summit, we demonstrated how citizens can use their phones to scan a QR code and see a 3D model of a house, complete with natural surroundings, that adapts to different storm surge levels. It’s so advanced that you can even walk up under the house using your phone’s view.

The goal is to make it easier for citizens to visualize projects like new city halls by simply holding up their phones to the land where the project will be. It’s amazing technology, and it’s a lot of fun. 

How do you frame the importance of resilience in the context of economic development and regional growth?

Resilience is absolutely critical to our region. It’s the cornerstone that requires all of us to join together and collaborate. There’s so much economic development and business growth emerging from the activities tied to building a more resilient Tampa Bay.

Through our Resiliency Coalition, which was the second of its kind in Florida (the Southeast Florida Climate Compact was the first), we’ve created a platform for collaboration. The Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Coalition includes 30 member governments and 90 business partners who play a vital role in our initiatives. 

Resilience is driving innovation in various industries, like bluetech — technology focused on protecting, cleaning, and sustaining our oceans. Additionally, numerous technologies are coming to the forefront, all revolving around the concept of resilience.

For Tampa Bay, flood inundation is a significant challenge. Our models, data, and projects aim to address issues like compound flooding, rainy day flooding, and storm surge impacts. Recent storms have raised critical questions: Are these extreme weather events the new normal, or are they anomalies? Personally, I’ve seen the impacts firsthand. In St. Pete, we had five inches of rain in one hour, and my home, which is not in a flood zone or an evacuation area, flooded due to rain alone.

We thought we had more time to prepare for these challenges, but it’s clear we need to act sooner. This urgency has accelerated efforts across the region. For example, we’ve been working with the city of St. Pete and other local governments on various resilience initiatives. One of our key accomplishments is the Regional Resiliency Action Plan (RAP), a toolkit designed to help local governments implement tailored measures to improve resilience.

What will be your priorities for the council over the rest of this decade?

We are going to be very focused, and I’m excited about this because we received a $2 million grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. This funding will allow us to create the first-ever Coastal Master Plan in Florida. While Louisiana has a regional coastal master plan, there isn’t one for Florida, and this will cover 2,200 square miles of coastline.

This initiative will focus on flooding impacts using a coordinated, data-driven, and community-based planning process. It’s a four-year project, and we hope it becomes a scalable model for climate action and addressing climate change.

We’ve also been working with the Economic Development Administration (EDA) on several initiatives, including Project Phoenix 2.0. This program builds on the original Project Phoenix, launched over a decade ago, which simulated a worst-case Category 5 hurricane hitting the Tampa Bay region.

Can you elaborate on Project Phoenix and its evolution over the years?

The first Project Phoenix was created more than 10 years ago in partnership with the Economic Development Administration. It included a video simulation of a Category 5 hurricane making landfall in the Indian Rocks Beach area. The storm scenario showed the devastating “bathtub sloshing” effect in Tampa Bay, pushing water into the region and flooding areas like the third floor of Tampa General Hospital.

When the video was shown to 300 emergency management officials, the room was silent, until someone muttered an expletive. The impact was profound.

Five years ago, we updated the simulation with advanced technology, creating what we called the “Mac Daddy” Project Phoenix video. This version not only visualized the catastrophic effects of a storm but also included educational elements for emergency managers, citizens, and small business owners. We developed tabletop exercises and even included vignettes from three business owners in Mexico Beach who experienced Hurricane Michael.

During Hurricane Milton, rumors began circulating online that the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council had geoengineered the storm. This misinformation spread rapidly, garnering 60,000 hits in one day. I received calls from national outlets like NBC News, CNN, and even Erin Burnett, who wanted to interview me live. I declined, but it was a whirlwind.

Eventually, USA Today debunked the theory, but the incident highlighted the challenges of misinformation. Ironically, this attention has led to more funding: we’ve received another $500,000 from the EDA to launch Project Phoenix 3.0. This next iteration will focus on implementing tabletop exercises across all six counties in the region, strengthening our emergency preparedness and partnerships.