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"Pay attention Tulsa, your area could be next.
The 6th Street Infill Plan took ten years to develop and is part of our comprehensive plan. In those ten years, the 6th Street Infill Plan was advertised time and time again. Planning for the Form Base Code began in the year 2002 and the planning was done in two stages over a ten year period. Both stages of the FBC plan were the topic of many articles and interviews by our local media as well as public meetings hosted by the COT to educate the public about the code. After which, The Pearl District made history by becoming the first community in Oklahoma's to adopt a form base code.
For anyone to say that they weren't included in either study or that they didn't know it was going on is laughable.
The real story here is that we are witnessing a circus side show performance presented by lawyers who work for big corporations, with the specific purpose of insuring that this area remains blighted. They absolutely do not want The Pearl District to flourish. They want the value of this near downtown neighborhood to continue in decline so they can come along and buy this property cheap. Property that they will use for their own self interest and without restriction. They have no intention of engaging in thoughtful collaboration in neighborhood plans and they don't like the fact that the majority of stake holders in The Pearl District have better ideas. Ideas that provide the kind of city life that many people want. Ideas that make fiscal sense by providing the city with a large return on investment capital. The 6th Street Infill Plan is working! Take the time to look what has happened to Centennial Park and 6th Street in the past ten years! It's working!
But NO, the corporate oligarchs are outraged! They complain to the Mayor and media that they didn't know! They weren't included! They have to change the plans now!!! Why? To benefit themselves of course.
If we are ever going to see plans that will help us overcome the fiscal and demographic challenges of our time, then this kind of last minute political maneuvering must not be permitted to influence public policy. Corporations should be partners in neighborhood planning, not destroyers.
Unfortunately, many of our city leaders will happily place the well being of the city and it's citizens well below the whims of their corporate masters. As long as "good ole boy politics and influence" are allowed to continue shaping policy in Tulsa, then there is no reason to engage the public in a charade of planning. Small Area Plans and PlaniTulsa are a waist of time and a lie.
The truth is that the Form Based Code can provide us with the blueprint for making dense, walkable, vibrant neighborhoods a reality. It can provide us with the tools we need to reverse blight and to renew our older neighborhoods. Especially the neighborhoods that surround our downtown.
Maybe that's why over 300 municipalities in the US have adopted a form based code.
If you don't understand it, don't believe what you read. Find out the truth! Call Susan Miller at I.N.C.O.G. or Theron Warlick with the Tulsa Planning Department.
They can tell you the pros and cons of the code and are happy to help."
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