Tulsa launches program to guide physical development

TULSA - Those who complain about what improvements the city can make are now given a chance to address their concerns.

Thirty years ago Tulsa constructed a comprehensive plan, and city leaders see it's time for an update.

PLANiTULSA, a citywide program designed to develop a new comprehensive plan, was launched Tuesday afternoon. The function of the comprehensive plan is to guide the physical development of the city for a stronger quality of life.

Mayor Kathy Taylor said PLANiTULSA provides an opportunity for Tulsa residents to form a common vision for the city's future.

Citizens are called upon to determine how they want their city to develop and grow during the next 30 years.

"I urge every Tulsan to take an active role as their ideas and suggestions will be among the most important elements of the plan and will be crucial to its ultimate success," she said in a press release.

In recent years Tulsa has seen an up-tick in economic development and progress for Vision 2025 projects.

Developing a new plan will retain the momentum and needs of the citizens, according to city officials.

Steps toward PLANiTULSA have been in development for more than a year. In March the city partnered with Fregonese Associates Inc., an Oregon land-use planning firm.

John Fregonese, president of Fregonese Associates, said his company will look at the driving forces of the threats to Tulsa and work on implementing solutions through the comprehensive plan.

He said it is important to stabilize Tulsa because there are examples all across the country of cities' economies suffering due to lack of planning and vision.

"Tulsa is a great city with a lot of opportunity, but it does have some threats in the future that you need to address pretty quickly," he said.

Areas with vacant retail and land need a strategy to bring reinvestment to those parts. Simply ignoring those areas will only drag down the neighborhoods around it, he said.

"A lot of what you don't see in Tulsa is an active reinvestment sector," he said. "That is going to be one of the key areas we look at. Where do people come for reinvestment, what are the obstacles we face now and how we do we accomplish it?"

Another focus is employment growth within the city, and to make sure Tulsa gets a share of regional employment.

Fregonese and his team have created similar plans for Dallas, Austin, Denver and Chicago. While not from Tulsa, he said it's beneficial for the city to have outside input on how to solve its problems.

"We don't tell people what to do, we listen to what they want and part of the advantage of working in other cites you can bring in a lot of ideas and try them out," he said. "Fundamentally it's got to be Tulsa's plan for Tulsa's vision."

Though it's a long-term process, Fregonese wants to see plans implemented immediately. Referring to the plan will provide perspective and guidance, he said.

In the fall the city will host workshops for citizens to have input.

Fregonese said the business community should know that comprehensive plans aren't meant to change the current city's economy - the plans are designed around the big economic drivers.

"I think we are founding our plan on sound economic principals and we are going to develop a market-friendly plan," he said. "We understand that the most successful plans are the ones that have a strong economic business plan behind it."

The Journal Record, May 14, 2008, Heather Caliendo

Copyright 2008 Dolan Media Newswires