City Councilors Jeannie Cue (left) and Anna America play volleyball at The Grove in Harwood in Dallas on Tuesday. The courts are part of a pocket park that also includes an outdoor dining area. The Grove is one of several stops city councilors are making in the Dallas/Fort Worth area Tuesday and Wednesday to gather ideas about how the Arkansas River corridor might be developed. KEVIN CANFIELD/The Frontier
DALLAS — City Councilor Jeannie Cue is still not all that enthused about the possibility of an REI project coming to Tulsa.
Sitting on a wooden bench in the Katy Trail Ice House on Tuesday night, she sipped on a tall glass of water and said she’s not ready to support the project.
The Ice House is an outdoor restaurant and bar that saddles up next to a busy pedestrian and bike trail. It’s the kind of place advocates for development along the Arkansas River might just love.
“Right now I have to have a meeting with my constituents to let them make their feelings (known) and bring their best interests to the table,” Cue said. “I represent the people of my district, and what the majority of the people want, I support them.”
Cue joined five other city councilors Tuesday for the first day of a two-day visit to the Metroplex to see how officials here are developing the Trinity River. The trip also includes stops at a number of restaurants and entertainment venues to get a feel for what types of development might work along the Arkansas River.
Tuesday city councilors visit REI stores in Highland Park, Texas, and another REI along the Trinity River in Fort Worth.
“I will go to REI because I have never been,” Cue said. “But I am here more to see about Fort Worth river development.”
The District 2 city councilor chooses her words carefully. She has to. For the second time in the last three years, she’s in the middle of a very public squabble over commercial development in her district.
Some people have accused her of stirring up opposition to the proposed Simon Property Outlet Mall at 61st Street and Highway 75. Cue hosted a heavily attended public meeting on the project and never publicly supported the development.
Although hardly alone in her unwillingness to support it, she bore much of the criticism when Simon chose to move the project south to Jenks.
Now a group of Tulsans led by former Mayor Terry Young is fighting the proposed 71st Street and Riverside Drive development in court, saying the city has no right to use the property, home to Helmerich Park, for commercial development. And Cue is calling for another public meeting.
“I want to see what they (the developer) wants to bring to the table and have a public meeting,” Cue said. “You know, this isn’t the City Council that makes the decisions always — it’s the citizens of the city of Tulsa.”
The Katy Trail Ice House was one of several stops city councilors made in Dallas on Tuesday to explore possible Arkansas River development projects. KEVIN CANFIELD/The Frontier
The Tulsa Public Facilities Authority in August approved the sale of nearly nine acres of land on the southwest corner of 71st Street and Riverside Drive for construction of the REI development.
The other structures included in the original development plans are a 12,000-square-foot retail/restaurant space; a restaurant with a 6,000-square-foot patio facing the river; and a 7,000-square-foot restaurant and retail space at the north end of of the property.
The developer of the project, Dallas-based North Point Property Co., LLC, agreed to pay $1.465 million for the land.
Cue said many of her constituents believe the proposed project is too much development for the site. Cue doesn’t disagree, and she’s also worried that the project does not meet the development standards in the proposed River Design Overlay.
The overlay addresses such things as a building’s orientation to the Arkansas River, landscaping and parking. It is intended to provide regulations that help the city strike a balance between maintaining public green space along the river corridor while promoting appropriate development.
Creation of the RDO had not begun when the developer began discussing the possible project on the 71st Street and Riverside Drive property more than two years ago. The proposed development would be exempt from the RDO regulations because the city has already approved a site plan for the property.
Still, Cue believes it is fair to require the developer to abide by the regulations.
“Is it fair to the citizens of Tulsa to have something built that they don’t particularly care for on the river?” she said. “This is our city and we want to make sure everything we build is something that will last and will look good in our community.”
Cue knows some people think she’s anti-development. Not true, she says.
“The bottom line is, I just want the right fit for our river,” Cue said.
From the Ice House, councilors went to The Rustic, a restaurant and entertainment venue. There, owner Josh Sepkowitz, an Oklahoma native, acknowledged that he and his partners have looked at opening a restaurant in the REI development.
That may explain why the site plan for the property includes a restaurant with a stage that faces the river.
Sepkowitz provided no details on what type of restaurant he’d like to bring to the site, but said it would not be a Rustic.
Other councilors making the visit to Dallas are Phil Lakin, Anna America, Connie Dodson, Karen Gilbert and Blake Ewing.
Here is the City Council agenda for Wednesday.
The Rustic in Dallas is one of the places a contingent of Tulsa city councilors and other local officials visited on Tuesday. The trip, spearheaded by Councilor Phil Lakin, is intended to provide councilors with information about how Dallas officials are developing property along the Trinity River. Provided
