Compromise offered on Pearl District's 6th Street Infill Plan
Posted: Thursday, January 16, 2014 12:00 am | Updated: 7:14 am, Thu Jan 16, 2014.
By KEVIN CANFIELD World Staff Writer
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/government/compromise-offered-on-pearl-district-s-th-street-infill-plan/article_5cc0b663-0021-565c-aa01-edee9f00ae87.htmlCity Councilor Blake Ewing and the Pearl District Business and Property Owners Association have proposed a compromise on changes to the Pearl District 6th Street Infill Plan.
The agreement calls for 11th Street from Troost to Peoria avenues to remain designated for mixed-use development. The Property and Business Association had proposed and the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission has adopted an amendment designating that stretch of 11th Street auto-oriented.
Ewing, who represents the district and owns a business there, said the mixed-use designation which envisions walkable areas similar to Cherry Street, where structures are built to the sidewalk makes sense along 11th Street.
"We have building stock, and it's built up to the curb right now," he said. "It would make sense that future development along 11th Street be consistent with the building stock that is already there."
The designation also makes sense because 11th Street is part of historic Route 66, Ewing said.
"If we want that to be a tourist area, it needs to have that kind of Cherry Street feel," he said.
Small-area plans such as the 6th Street Infill Plan are policy documents that lay out the city's vision for the development of a particular area. They are not regulating documents but information for decision-makers including future planning commissioners who are charged with considering zoning changes and other land-use regulations.
The 6th Street Infill Plan was initiated by another Pearl District group the Pearl District Association nearly 10 years ago and adopted by the City Council in 2006.
The backers of the plan envisioned creating a dense, urban environment that encouraged walkability and focused less on automobile-oriented development.
The Pearl District Business and Property Owners Association whose members include manufacturers and other auto-oriented businesses have said they were never included in the original process and responded by proposing amendments to the plan that, among other things, changed 11th Street's designation from mixed-use to auto-oriented.
The amendments were adopted by the Planning Commission and are now before the City Council, where Planning Commission Chairman Michael Covey will appear Thursday to discuss the issue.
Councilors can approve the amendments in whole or in part, or they can send the amendments back in whole or in part for reconsideration by the Planning Commission.
Ewing said he expects that the council will send the map back to the Planning Commission for its approval of the 11th Street compromise and that the council will likely approve the rest of the amendments.
That is bad news as far Pearl District Association President Thom Crowe is concerned.
"This is not a compromise at all," he said. "It is a complete disappointment."
According to Crowe, the amended 6th Street Infill Plan will turn the area into an industrial park.
"We are turning Peoria (Avenue) into something less like Cherry Street and more like 71st Street and Memorial Drive," Crowe said.