Preserve Midtown

Dear Neighbors,

MARKYOUR CALENDARS NOW!!

I am giving you a heads up NOW that there will be a Brookside Neighborhood Association open meeting to provide  information and discussion regarding the proposed Bomasada Mid-Rise (4-story) Apartment and Parking Garage Proposal at  39th Street and Rockford Avenue

ON Monday,  MAY 19TH AT  5:30 P.M. AT  Wright  Elementary  School.

The developer of Bomasada has applied for rezoning this property for a higher density classification  – RM-3. 

They are asking for a variance in height and setbacks. This property is currently RM-1/RM-2 — low to medium density.

This proposed change of zoning will set a precedent for future development in our community!

The impact on the families living along 39th Street and Rockford Avenue will be tremendously disruptive and will certainly result in changing the traffic along the 41st and Peoria shopping area.  

You deserve to have an opportunity to learn about this proposed change and lend your voice in deciding this matter. 

The City didn’t listen when they OK’d the Albertson’s food store.  Will they listen this time?

Let’s exercise our right to have a say in representative government.

I hope that many of you will be able to come and listen, ask questions and speak your mind.  You don’t have to be a member of BNA to attend this.   If you live in the Brookside area and care about the future of our community, then you should come and participate.

I have enjoyed getting to know all of you as I’ve recently walked our neighborhoods to survey the feelings about this project. 

 I appreciate your interest in wishing to see Brookside retain its charm and traditional appearance.  I also am grateful for the support

you have shown for the neighbors living right in the immediate area of this proposed development site. 

 I’ve learned that there are many neighbors who dislike the continued commercialization and overdevelopment that has been occuring in our Brookside community over the past few years. 

  Brookside is where the old homesteads of an ‘earlier time’ in Tulsa have gradually turned suburban –and a small business community is our Main Street.   We love our cottage community and traditional homes and want to preserve the tasteful, hometown look of our Brookside.

Hope to see you there!!

Laura Collins —   Coordinator for this most recent effort to Stop the McApartment at 39th and Rockford Avenue.

 Brookside — Home of Neighbors and Friends

Contact:   Laura Collins,  742-1552 or livetosing1@cox.net

 This was submitted to us by a supporter of PreserveMidtown and is included here for your enjoyment.

Slum Lords

The superrich make lousy neighbors—
they buy a house and tear it down
and build another, twice as big, and leave.
They’re never there; they own so many
other houses, each demands a visit.
Entire neighborhoods called fashionable,
bustling with servants and masters, such as
Louisburg Square in Boston or Bel Air in L.A.,
are districts now like Wall Street after dark
or Tombstone once the silver boom went bust.
The essence of superrich is absence.
They like to demonstrate they can afford
to be elsewhere. Don’t let them in.
Their riches form a kind of poverty.

Jerry Gustafson

Join Mayor Kathy Taylor for the citywide launch of PlaniTulsa:

Tuesday May 13, 2008 4:30 to 6:30 pm.                               Location: Central Center at Centennial Park, 1028 E. 6th St. (6th & Peoria)

5 pm- Presentation by Mayor Taylor and nationally renowned community planner, John Fregonese

PlaniTulsa is the process of updating our comprehensive plan.

“Someone has to make sure that Tulsa grows in a healthy new way.  And we want that someone to be YOU.”

Protecting America’s Historic Neighborhoods:
Taming the Teardown Trend

Wednesday, May 28
6 o’clock
Harwelden Mansion
2210 South Main
Tulsa

Using examples from across the country, Jim Lindberg will describe the scope and impact of the teardown trend.

He will explain the forces behind it, and offer suggestions for how
neighborhoods and communities can foster sustainable growth without sacrificing historic character.

Jim Lindberg is the Director of Preservation Initiatives in the Mountain/Plains Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  He is the author of numerous articles and co-author of three books on historic preservation.  Mr. Lindberg lives in Denver.

Free and Open to the Public
Information and Reservations
info@preservok.org
(918) 583.5550

Sponsors
Preservation Oklahoma
Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office
Kirkpatrick Foundation
Oklahoma’s Most Endangered Historic Places Program

Co-Sponsors
Tulsa Foundation for Architecture
Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa

You can still have some influence in the construction process by helping the city monitor that the builder is compliant on building regulations.

1. You have the right to check the demolition and building permits at the city permit office, 111 S. Greenwood.  These permits should be acquired by the builder before the action begins. 
2. A building plan should be on file with the building permit.  You can get a copy on request, 596-9656 or online https;//secure2.cityoftulsa.org/TimeLine3/planreview.aspx  Check the plan to make sure the house being built is the one that was permitted.  Report any discrepancy to the Mayor’s Hot Line, 596-2100 & to the Permit Office, 596-9656.
3. If the builder does not take adequate measures to stop run-off of silt and debris from his site, please call the Mayor’s hot line, 596-2100 and Scott Van Loo, 591-4379 to report. 
4. Continue reporting the lack of erosion control until it is corrected.  Silt is the biggest contributor to storm drains backing up and flooding.
5. Call the Mayor’s hot line anytime you see someone empty paint or other debris emptied into the storm drain, 596-2100.  This is an unlawful act.  Get a license number.
6. Contact your city councilor about any of the above problems.  They need to know what is happening in their district!

Clogged storm drains are a major factor contributing to neighborhood flooding.

These are good ways we can protect our neighborhoods.

Good News comes from today’s work session meeting of the TMAPC. 

An enthusiastic and nearly unanimous commission authorized the TMAPC staff to work with a sub committee of the TMAPC to formulate a plan to have open discussions to determine the problems in todays neighborhoods and find solutions.  “We want to determine where we want to be as a community” stated Dwayne Midget the WIN director from the Mayor’s office.  We should look at including the Comprehensive Plan people so they see what is going on in the neighborhoods. 

Commissioner Michelle Cantrell stated that TulsaNow organization might be interested in co-hosting this event.  Commissioner Gary Sparks said this study should be “broad and well-organized.”  New Commissioner Liz Wright reminded everyone that the focus should be to inform, educate and hopefully illuminate the citizenry of Tulsa.  Michelle Cantrell also suggested we should have these meetings in the evenings so the neighborhood residents could attend.

This is the first step we need to bring a forward vision to Tulsa while valuing our older neighborhoods.

We must not let our delight in this development make us overconfident.  We must stay in the process and make sure it continues this forward motion.

There are many issues that are at stake here and we will be working to make sure stormwater run-off, environmental impacts, demolition process, enforcement with meaningful fines, and other issues are addressed.

Thanks to all of you who have contributed your time and talent to our efforts to have neighborhood problems brought to the table.

About Neighborhood Conservation Districts Myth: Supporters of Neighborhood Conservation Districts (NCD’s) “under the radar.”                                                                                                            Mythbuster: PreserveMidtown hasn’t been hiding anywhere!

1.  Through a suggestion by Cason Carter, PreserveMidtown was created to bring public awareness to the issue of infill development in January, 2007.

2.  We attended the Mayor’s neighborhood picnics throughout the summer of 2007 to speak to the issues of infill development.

3.  We launched our website www.preservemidtown.com in June, 2007.

4.  We hosted a public forum on “Teardowns in Tulsa”  on infill development in October, 2007.

5.  We discovered through networking with Homeowner Associations that Maria Barnes was championing NCD’s.

6.  PreserveMidtown, along with the Brookside Neighborhood Association, the Coalition of Historic Neighborhoods, the Tulsa League of Women Voters and the South Peoria Neighborhood Connection Foundation, hosted a District 4 and District 9 City Council Candidate forum on February 25, 2008.

7.  PreserveMidtown distributed a survey to all city council candidates about the infill issues and posted it on their website, www.preservemidtown.com. 

8. PreserveMidtown distributed over 500 signs at the request of supporters of “building homes that fit the neighborhood.”

Myth: Supporter’s of NCD’s is a small group.

Mythbuster: We have contacted over 2,000 people who support and are interested in NCD’s.

 Myth: The committee drafting the NCD document is unfair.

Mythbuster: Steve Novick, attorney-at-law, who is a neighborhood advocate and board member of PreserveMidtown, sits on the committee.   Paul Kane, who is executive vice- president of the Homebuilder’s Association, also sits on the committee.

 Myth: Preserve Midtown just wants to control people.

Mythbuster: That is exactly what PreserveMidtown is against—control.  We want the discussion of who “controls” the neighborhoods to be held in a public manner with input from as many resident property owners as possible.

If anti-neighborhood conservation districts people don’t like control, why are they trying to control what happens in other people’s neighborhoods. 

Why would someone living on 45th street try to control what happens on 22^nd street by denying that neighborhood the ability to adopt a neighborhood conservation district?

   Myth: The city is acting like a communist government.

Mythbuster: “A conservation district zoning overlay is a more site-specific application of the city’s authority to plan and zone. The legal basis for conservation districts, therefore, are essentially the same as the legal basis for our current zoning code, as are the fundamental policy considerations (i.e. balancing private property rights and community interests.)” Jack Blair, “Neighborhood Conservation Districts”, November 20, 2007.

 Myth: Supporters of Neighborhood Conservation District’s are against new development.

Mythbuster: Growth is good and is already regulated by the city in the form of zoning. Supporters of Neighborhood Conservation District’s want to see smart growth for the community at large and a long term vision for Tulsa’s future.

 If anti-NCD groups want new, then why not embrace new initiatives like NCD’s? Myth: NCD’s will simply burden an already over-burdened system.

Mythbuster: Board of Adjustment cases and appeals created by an inadequate zoning system for today’s neighborhoods cost the city more money and clog the overloaded system.

Better defined development standards mean more clarity for everyone, builder and resident property owner alike.

 Myth: Covenants can take care of infill issues.

Mythbuster: Covenants are a civil contract. There is nothing keeping someone from challenging their authority in civil court. Once a building permit is granted that contradicts your covenants, unless their can be a reasonable solution, the only recourse for the resident property owner is to hire an attorney and file a lawsuit in district court.   

It is your responsibility to know you have a protective covenant on your property.  No one will notify you that it is being ignored.

 Myth: Neighborhood Conservation District’s will destroy property values.

Mythbusters: The research in some circulated e-mails allege loss of property value due to “regulation” is selective, superficial and meaningless in terms of objective research. The research also comes from a real estate agent whose income is dependent on commission from sales.

Jack Blair, Policy Administrator for the city of Tulsa, in response Neighborhood Conservation District’s for Lortondale subdivision wrote that “Incongruent, out of scale development would disrupt the architectural consistency of the neighborhood, and perhaps, counter-intuitively (since the first home is probably fairly expensive), could actually diminish property values of these smaller homes.”

In the same document, Mr. Blair makes the case for “the sum is greater than the parts. The coherence of the neighborhood is, in itself, of value.”

Myth: Supporters of NCD’s are “policing” other people.

Mythbuster: Supporters of NCD’s want the issue to be discussed at the city level with fair and equal representation. Supporters of NCD’s want everyone to have the opportunity to have a choice about the future of their own neighborhoods.  The resident property owners themselves will determine their own conservation districts for their own neighborhood, not someone else’s neighborhood.

 Thank you to so many people that care enough to engage in this issue.  Please contact your councilman and help them to determine what is a win/win solution for all neighborhoods.

Americans love tearing down buildings. We rip our homes up to the studs, scrape them down to their foundations, and are riveted by the ultimate demolitions: imploding skyscrapers. It’s part of a cultural need to make way for the new and improved.

But the construction and operation of buildings sends up twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as the entire U.S. transportation sector, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. (Analysts with the federal Energy Information Administration say it is probably closer to even, all factors considered.)

Read more of this article at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-re-teardown-nation-0413apr13,0,6149123.story

Super-sized homes, or “McMansions,” are coming under fire across the country as many cities consider stemming the trend of tearing down houses to replace with larger, new construction. In the past two years, cities like Austin, Atlanta, and Delray Beach, Fla., have declared moratoriums on demolitions, buying time to devise a solution.

Read more about this article in the Preservation online magazine published by the National Trust:http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2008/story-of-the-week/mcmansions-on-hold.html

The Conservation District Ordinance for Tulsa is under review by the TMAPC.

If enacted, a Conservation District would have to be adopted by an organized neighborhood to be enforceable.  The neighborhood would decide what characteristics of their neighborhood they would like to maintain.  A Conservation District Ordinance is a tool that neighborhoods can elect to use.  The city will not force neighborhoods to become a Conservation District. 

A Conservation District will allow an organized neighborhood group to ELECT to set limits on issues like setbacks, structure heights and open space requirements that are compatible with the existing homes in that neighborhood.

A Conservation District does not regulate aesthetics of homes.

Communities routinely make investments and create land use policies that affect property values for the greater good. Regulating infill development is no different. It affects the quality of life and character of the community at large.  Although some may frame the issue as an intrusion on the property rights of the owner who wants to sell or knock down their house and build something new, it is important to remember that it works both ways.  Teardowns affect the property rights and investments of neighbors who have to live with the results.  With property rights come responsibilities.

The highest and best use does not always mean the most profitable use imaginable.