TulsaNow

"There's nowhere to park downtown!" If you believe this, you may also believe that there are not enough football fans in Oklahoma...or drops of water in the ocean. Take a look for yourself. The purple areas below represent available parking in downtown Tulsa. (Light purple, sadly, represents surface parking.)


For those of us who believe that downtown Tulsa should aspire to be more than just the "Parking Lot Capital of the World," the CORE Tulsa proposals make a lot of sense. Here's what they say about parking:

Surface parking lots have proliferated in Downtown Tulsa, eroding the urban fabric, livability, walkability, and property tax revenues, as many buildings have been demolished for surface parking. In addition, the abundance of lower-cost surface parking makes the preferred structured parking solution less viable. Despite this, the perception that “there’s nowhere to park downtown” persists. The City of Tulsa and Tulsa Parking Authority should revisit its parking plan, and put new policies into action that move the City ahead of the demand curve for structured parking. Surface parking should be discouraged by all means possible.

~ Enact incentives for developers to include structured parking within their buildings, especially when building infill on surface lots.
~ Provide no incentives for developments which include demolition of buildings for surface parking in the Central Business District.

~ Change surface parking from a use by right to a special exception in the Central Business District zoning code.

~ Work with local businesses and with religious, educational, and other institutions to create parking plans that address their needs within the framework of the City of Tulsa’s greater good.

~ Consider strategies such as those recently enacted in Albuquerque, whereas the City considers structured parking a component of the infrastructure that it provides to the public. New developments in Albuquerque do not have to provide parking for their tenants because the City will provide it for them. Albuquerque markets this concept as an incentive. New surface lots are prohibited, and new parking structures and infill buildings have begun to rise on existing surface lots.

View the CORE Proposals
Why support the CORE proposals? Check out this video! (7 minutes)

It's time...for TulsaNow!