City Director

Location:

India

Posted:

December 23, 2012

Contact this candidate

Resume:

READ TODAY'S STORIES AND E-EDITION

LocalCrimeWatchBroken ArrowStateU.S./World

Your bookmark will appear on your Profile page. Please give it a title,

and short description so that visitors to your page will understand where

the bookmark leads.

Bookmark Title :

Bookmark Text :

Commission to resume hearing on expansion of Pearl District form-based code area

Published: 9/2/2012 2:23 AM

Last Modified: 9/2/2012 4:55 AM

The Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission on Wednesday will resume its public hearing on a proposal to expand the use of the form-based code within the Pearl District.

City Planning Director Dawn Warrick said the city, working with the Planning Commission staff, has not changed its recommendation significantly since its last presentation to the commission.

"It will be very similar," Warrick said, "but it does have some changes based upon a continued review of the plan policy document and the feedback that we have received through our public meetings and discussions."

Proponents of the plan initially asked that use of the code be expanded to the entire Pearl District, but in June Warrick presented commissioners with a more modest expansion proposal that would limit use of the code to about two-thirds of the district.

Other proposed modifications included changing building designations to more closely match the 6th Street Infill Plan and not making participation in the code optional.

At present, the code - along with a regulating plan - includes 125 parcels of land covering about 60 acres of the district between Fifth Place and 11th Street west of Peoria Avenue.

The entire Pearl District, meanwhile, includes 1,172 parcels of land covering roughly 300 acres and is bounded by U.S. 75 and Utica Avenue between Interstate 244 and 11th Street.

Warrick said that on Wednesday she will recommend moving the boundary to the north edge of 11th Street and the western edge of Utica Avenue.

"So, in effect, it (the plan) will no longer cross either one of those streets," Warrick said. "What we did is go back to the planning document and evaluate what the language was and the intent."

The form-based code represents a new way of thinking about planning in Tulsa. Until 2011, when the code was approved by the City Council, the city zoned property based solely on its use - commercial property in one area, housing in another, for example.

The form-based code puts less emphasis on a property's use and more on its design and placement on a lot. Mixed-use developments are welcomed under the code; cars are not.

In general, the code encourages the development of dense, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods such as those found in urban communities.

Planning Commission meetingWhen: 1:30 p.m., Wednesday

Where: City Council chamber of City Hall, Second Street and Cincinnati Avenue

Original Print Headline: Planners to resume Pearl code hearing

Kevin Canfield 918-***-****

*****.********@**********.***