Mayor Dewey Bartlett and members of a committee working on river development guidelines piled into a bus Friday and toured possible development sites along the Arkansas River.
The trip did not make much news because it wasn’t supposed to. It was just a field trip, if you will, but an important one.
For the first time since the working group began meeting in the spring, members ditched the conference room to see firsthand how the development guidelines they are putting together could potentially affect what is built along the river — and where that development might take place.
“We went from here (City Hall) to the Cousins Park area and back,” Bartlett said.
Along the way, the bus stopped or slowed at different potential development locations on both sides of the river. Working group members looked at renderings created by local architects to help envision what type of projects might work where.
Officials stressed that the renderings were nothing more than examples of the types of development that could be built along the river, not development proposals.
City Councilor G.T. Bynum said the exercise gave him a greater appreciation for the potential impact low-water dams — and the lakes they would create upstream — could have on development along the river.
Development opportunities exist not only along the river, Bynum said, but at any location where the beauty of the lakes created by the dams would be visible.
“I did not appreciate the scope of the opportunities we have before us before I took the tour,” he said. “I wish more citizens could take it.”
Bynum is chairman of the Arkansas River Infrastructure Task Force, which has proposed the construction of a new low-water dam at 103rd Street and Riverside Drive and the reconstruction of Zink Dam. The dam in south Tulsa would create a lake stretching back as far as 71st Street, with the renovated Zink Dam creating a lake that would run north of downtown.
One stop on the tour was the city’s maintenance facility at 23rd Street and Jackson Avenue.
The rendering created for that site shows a modern-looking glass building fronted by a well-manicured lawn and a multi-purpose trail.
“To see (in the rendering) the beautiful view of the Tulsa skyline, River Parks and the lake, and then to see it occupied right now by muddy fields and old trucks and old buildings, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think that that isn’t its highest and best use,” Bynum said. “So that opportunity there was tremendous.”
This before and after graphic shows an example of what could be built at the city’ maintenance facility at 23rd Street and Jackson Avenue. The rendering is not part of a proposal for development. Courtesy
Councilor Phil Lakin said the trip was valuable because it gave life to what before Friday had been only words on paper or dots on a map.
“My only regret is I wish we would have done it earlier,” Lakin said.
Lakin, who represents District 8 in south Tulsa, said the tour gave working group members who are not as familiar with that part of town a chance to see exactly where the proposed low-water dam at 103rd Street and Riverside Drive would be built.
“We collectively saw where the south Tulsa dam would go, and possible land uses for the river at that point, which are different than the land uses at Zink Dam,” Lakin said. “There are a lot of people who just don’t make it any further south than I-44. For them to see how the guidelines would impact the businesses, homes and vacant property south of Interstate 44 was important.”
So what are the guidelines?
Susan Miller with the Indian Nations Council of Governments is responsible for incorporating the guidelines into the zoning code. She said the guidelines will address form, function, design and use.
“In the big scheme of river development, we just want to be sure we have sustainable, high-quality, active projects,” she said. “It has to be something that pulls people down to the river.”
For example, as currently written, the development guidelines would require that structures be no more than 25 feet from the River Parks trail and that the front of the structure face the trail.
The guidelines would discourage the construction of buildings that include long, continuous stretches of a single material along the exterior. The idea, Miller said, is to create transparency by mixing in glass or other materials to break up the look of a structure.
“We are just trying to create an active space where the buildings can interact with the trail,” Miller said. “Transparency helps that. You don’t have just a blank wall.”
The proposed guidelines would also prohibit the use of vinyl or aluminum siding on the exterior of buildings.
This before and after graphic shows what type of development could be built on the site of the concrete plant on the west side of the Arkansas River. The rendering is not part of a development proposal. COURTESY
As for what could not be built along the river, the list is long: public protection and utility facilities; sexually oriented businesses; check cashing; pawn shops; bail bonds; day labor hiring centers; blood bank; plasma center; retail building material establishments; automobile parts and accessories store; gasoline service station; trades and services; mini storage; automotive and allied activities; drive-in restaurants; outdoor advertising; warehousing and wholesaling; mining and mineral processing; light manufacturing and industry; moderate manufacturing and industry; heavy manufacturing and industry; junk and salvage yards.
The next step in the process will take place early next year when the working group holds public meetings with private landowners to discuss the proposed guidelines, Miller said.
The guidelines must be reviewed by the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission and approved by the City Council before they can go into effect. In each instance, the public will be allowed to comment before a vote is taken.
And, of course, things can change along the way.
Bartlett, for one, believes there are pros and cons to implementing development guidelines along the river.
“One concern I have is that there are some with very, very strong views about how things should look, and I’m not saying anybody has bad taste —it might be terrific taste — but these things change over time,” Bartlett said. “And normally, when there are somewhat restrictive regulations, they can be very difficult to undo, and the people that have to deal with them are those who are willing to spend a lot of money — and risk a lot of money in order to build something.
“If those restrictions and those regulations become unduly expensive than that will have a big-time chilling effect on development. Some people might appreciate that, but I am not one of those.”
The working group was established by the City Council and the Mayor’s Office during the City Council-mayor retreat.
In addition to Bynum, Lakin and Miller, the working group includes City Councilors Jeannie Cue and Blake Ewing; city Planning Director Dawn Warrick; Clay Bird, director of the Mayor’s Office on Economic Development; Jeff Stava, George Kaiser Family Foundation; Shelby Navarro; Matt Meyer, River Parks executive director; Ted Reeds, architect; Shawn Schaefer; Ken Klein; Shane Fernandez, architect; Warren Ross; Robert Gardner, river development director for the Mayor’s Office; and Rich Brierre, Indian Nations Council of Governments.
