Preserve Midtown

Speech presented to the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA, June 28, 2006.

Teardowns wreck neighborhoods!  They spread through a community like a cancer, destroying the character and livability that are a neighborhood’s lifeblood.

“Builders used to be afraid to be the first person in a neighborhoods to tear a house down.  Now they’re looking around and saying they don’t mind taking the risk,” stated a New Jersey builder.

While the destruction of historic houses is wasteful, environmentally unsound and unnecessary, it’s often just the beginning of the problems caused by teardowns.

A few things that people and communities can do to stop teardown destruction; a temporary moratorium, get a local historic district designation, conservation districts or design review districts, educate realtors and new residents about the history of older neighborhoods and provide guidence in rehabbing or expanding older houses.

What is most important is that people are taking action instead of just sitting back and letting teardowns destroythe place they call home.

Some say that change is simply the price of progress–but this kind of change isn’t progress at all; it’s chaos!

Read the entire speech at http://nthp.org/news/2006/20060628_speech_sf.html

Attend the first TMAPC Work Session concerning the proposed Conservation District Ordinance.  This is a public meeting where you may  listen to what the Planning Commissioners say about this new ordinance.

The meeting is Wednesday, February 27, 2008, at the City Council room.  The work Session begins after the regularly scheduled Planning Commission meeting finishes.  The meeting begins at 1:30 pm.

What can you do?

Attend the TMAPC Work Session on Wednesday February 27, 2008.

Call City Hall, 596-1990, and ask your city councilor to support their constituents needs for the passage of this new Conservation District Ordinance.

As space becomes an issue, infill development zoning keeps cropping up.

The development issue that won’t go away is coming back Wednesday.

Tulsa World Reporter: Kevin Canfield

Read the complete article at the following web site:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080217_1_A21_hAssp71208

City Councilor Maria Barnes and Michelle Cantrell, a member of the city’s Planning Commission, are spearheading an effort to put further restrictions on infill development in older residential areas.

Tulsa World Reporter: P.J. Lassek

Read the entire article at the following website:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080215_1_A13_hButs76356

The Brookside Neighborhood Association will host an important meeting on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 to provide information about a very significant proposed apartment complex in Brookside. Specifically, the Bomasada Group of Houston, Texas proposes to build an upscale, 5-story complex consisting of approximately 250 units at the southwest corner of 39th and Rockford.

Bomasada wants the input and support of the neighbors before completing their design and presenting it to the TMAPC and the Tulsa City Council.  Bosamada principals will be present to share their plans and answer neighbors’ questions.

This meeting will be held at Wright Elementary School, 1110 E. 45th Pl., (one block west of Peoria).  Doors will open at 7:00 p.m. and plans for the project will be available for review.

The presentation will begin at 7:30 pm.

This will be your chance to air your concerns and state what you think should be built in Brookside.  All interested parties should attend!  Please share this information with anyone who may have an interest in this precedent-setting Brookside development project.

Tulsa along with Dallas, Minneapolis and Denver, was named  a “Teardown Hot Spot” by national magazine, Metropolitan Home.  Teardowns tend to multiply as a wave of residents from the far-flung suburbs seeks to migrate to older inner-ring suburbs or the core city itself.

Read entire article at http://www.pointclickhome.com/metropolitan_home/articles/bigger_isnt_always_better

Ridge Pointe homeowners are trying to protect the safety and serenity in their community!  They are objecting to a change in the commercial development adjacent to their neighborhood from a planned high-end, small shop style center to a “big box” Target Superstore.

They need our help to convince those on the TMAPC board that this is an inapproriate change.  They want the commercial development that was originally on the development plans. 

Please keep on sending the letters and don’t forget to cc incog@incog.org  and Councillor Bill Christiansen as well
dist8@tulsacouncil.org.
Remember: Attend the T.M.A.P.C. Meeting rescheduled for Wednesday, February 20, 2008.
More information is available on the website www.ridgepointe.us

As always thank you all very much for your support.

Learn more about TulsaNow, our plans for 2008, and how to get involved by joining us at our Annual Meeting!What: TulsaNow Annual Meeting
When: Wednesday, February 13, 5:30 PM
Where: Topeca Coffee Shop
Address: Mayo Hotel, 115 West 5th Street, Suite 169

Tulsa’s midtown district was named Thursday to Preservation Oklahoma’s list of Most Endangered Historic Places.

The area was included on the group’s 15th annual list because of the increasing number of “supersized” homes replacing midtown’s historic homes and the commercial encroachment threatening its character, according to Preservation Oklahoma.

“Every city has a uniqueness about it, and that uniqueness comes over a period of time,” said Susan McKee, president of Tulsa’s Coalition of Historic Neighborhoods.

“These historic neighborhoods are what make Tulsa what it is.”

The area included on the endangered list stretches from 11th to 51st streets and from Lewis Avenue to the Arkansas River.

Homes in the area generally were built between the 1920s and 1950s. “In midtown, there are a lot of craftsman-style bungalows and smaller homes,” McKee said. “They’re older homes, and they’re very well built, but they don’t have the modern conveniences.

“You just don’t find this kind of construction anymore,” she said.

Preserving older homes is an aesthetic as well as an economic issue, said John Feaver, president of Oklahoma Citybased Preservation Oklahoma.

“Preserving

homes is the biggest recycling project we have,” Feaver said, adding that historic neighborhoods help to distinguish cities.

Barbara VanHanken, president of Preserve Midtown, was among those who petitioned to have the area named to the Endangered Historic Places list.

Being named to the list doesn’t provide protection or funding for a site, but it helps to raise awareness and support for their preservation.

Preservation Oklahoma, a nonprofit group, aims to protect and promote the state’s historic resources, communities and landscapes through education, leadership and advocacy.

“It’s kind of an ominous list,” VanHanken said. “It’s not one you want to be on.”

However, it might bring more attention to ordinance and zoning changes that, she said, are needed to protect historic neighborhoods.

VanHanken and others are working to enact a conservation district in Tulsa “to give homeowners a say in what happens on their block, as far as development and redevelopment.”

“We’ve been working to stop the unlimited teardowns and have appropriate infill when that is necessary,” she said. “There are a lot of good homes being torn down unnecessarily.”

For more information about the effort, go online to www. tulsaworld.com/preserve midtown.

Angel Riggs (405) 528-2465
angel.riggs@tulsaworld.com