No New Downtown Surface Parking

[swake]

Best news ever. Make it permanent.

Mayor Dewey Bartlett signs off on downtown Tulsa parking lot moratorium

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/local_news/mayor-dewey-bartlett-signs-off-on-downtown-tulsa-parking-lot-moratorium

TULSA - The city of Tulsa has moved to stop buildings in downtown Tulsa from being torn down to make way for parking lots.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett had until Tuesday to sign off on a moratorium on the development of surface parking lots in the downtown area.
City Councilor Blake Ewing said block after block of parking lots diminishes the vibrancy of downtown.
The moratorium lasts until Jan. 31, 2013.

[Townsend]

Best news ever. Make it permanent.

Mayor Dewey Bartlett signs off on downtown Tulsa parking lot moratorium

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/local_news/mayor-dewey-bartlett-signs-off-on-downtown-tulsa-parking-lot-moratorium

TULSA - The city of Tulsa has moved to stop buildings in downtown Tulsa from being torn down to make way for parking lots.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett had until Tuesday to sign off on a moratorium on the development of surface parking lots in the downtown area.
City Councilor Blake Ewing said block after block of parking lots diminishes the vibrancy of downtown.
The moratorium lasts until Jan. 31, 2013.

Happy to see it.  Needs to be longer.

[Hoss]

Best news ever. Make it permanent.

Mayor Dewey Bartlett signs off on downtown Tulsa parking lot moratorium

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/local_news/mayor-dewey-bartlett-signs-off-on-downtown-tulsa-parking-lot-moratorium

TULSA - The city of Tulsa has moved to stop buildings in downtown Tulsa from being torn down to make way for parking lots.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett had until Tuesday to sign off on a moratorium on the development of surface parking lots in the downtown area.
City Councilor Blake Ewing said block after block of parking lots diminishes the vibrancy of downtown.
The moratorium lasts until Jan. 31, 2013.

Holy cow, Dooey does something I agree with!

[TheArtist]

Wow.  Didn't actually think I would ever see that happen.      

[sgrizzle]

6 months is a bit short. It takes a couple of months to tear down a building and pave one.

Also, nothing saying you can't tear it down and then just wait 6 months to pave it.

Glad to see, but needs to be longer to hold any weight.

[heironymouspasparagus]

And only 40 years late!!!   Wow...I may have to re-evaluate my opinion of Dewey... not.

[jacobi]

Agree with everything said above.

[JoeMommaBlake]

Hey guys.

I'm also appreciative of Mayor Bartlett for signing. The current moratorium is in place to allow the downtown parking study to be completed. I agree that it should be longer, but if we're going to discourage downtown parking lots in the future, it will have to be through a different means. While there was support for a short-term moratorium, there was no enthusiasm for a longer term ban. City Legal also challenged that idea. I'm optimistic that updates to PlaniTulsa, the zoning code, the downtown parking plan, etc. will lead us to the desired outcomes for downtown, which we all agree is an increase in density, both in our population and in our building stock.

The short term moratorium primarily draws attention to the issue and hopefully causes people to think twice before trying to solve "the parking problem" with new surface lots. If The City had done a better job of parking planning in the downtown area, we wouldn't have these same issues. I'm hopeful that your representatives will value planning (and thoughtful implementation) in the future much more than it's been valued in Tulsa's history.

[heironymouspasparagus]

If The City had done a better job of parking planning in the downtown area, we wouldn't have these same issues.

I'm hopeful that your representatives will value planning (and thoughtful implementation) in the future much more than it's been valued in Tulsa's history.

True.


And - ain't ever gonna happen (planning and thoughtful implementation).  Sadly.

[rdj]

Can we change our city motto to the, "Land of Studies"?  Consultants must flock to Tulsa to get in on the studies we do.

[carltonplace]

I really like the message that this sends. We've spent the last 20 years turning downtown into an office park with churches and TCC and making sure there was ample surface parking for said office park, churches and TCC. As a result we destroyed what was once a fairly dense downtown fabric for a smattering of buildings and lots. The lost building stock represented places that people like Blake could have used to build the type of downtown that we want.

We make it too easy to build surface parking, we make it too attractive.

Because we have no circulator or transit system there is a ready market for close at hand parking
We have limited structured parking and therefore encourage proximity surface parking
We haven't had a master plan for downtown and even the one we have now is not widely circulated or understood
There is no minimum standard for what a downtown surface lot should look like; no code to enforce.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Because we have no circulator or transit system there is a ready market for close at hand parking
We have limited structured parking and therefore encourage proximity surface parking
We haven't had a master plan for downtown and even the one we have now is not widely circulated or understood
There is no minimum standard for what a downtown surface lot should look like; no code to enforce.

Part way through reading, I was thinking about what to post, and then finished reading and found you had already said it perfectly....

[Townsend]

There is no minimum standard for what a downtown surface lot should look like; no code to enforce.

I thought it was cracked uneven asphalt, no greenery except weeds, abandoned buildings if available, faded markers, pot holes and an angry American Parking fee troll.

[TheTed]

I thought it was cracked uneven asphalt, no greenery except weeds, abandoned buildings if available, faded markers, pot holes and an angry American Parking fee troll.

You forgot the barriers to make sure pedestrians can't take a diaganol shortcut, and a big sign completely blocking the sidewalk.

[Weatherdemon]

You forgot the barriers to make sure pedestrians can't take a diaganol shortcut, and a big sign completely blocking the sidewalk.

American Parking needs to be booted from downtown.